Gaining an Advantage by Noting the Margins of your Lawn Bowling Rink

 

A skip can get some helpful hints to guide match strategy by examining the two meters of green closest to the front and rear ditches on the rink assigned for play. This applies particularly to club play where the tending of the green is less scrupulous than for greens that host open, bigger-money tournaments.

At some clubs, the rink margins slope so severely towards the ditches that it is difficult to stop a bowl from ditching once it approaches these edges. When this is the case, you can only play a normal game using short or medium jack lengths. If you do secure a long jack, short bowls are no longer so disadvantageous because the number of bowls behind is going to be lower.

At my Etobicoke club in Toronto, in an effort to regrow the strip at the edge of the green, the greenskeeper has left it longer than the main central portion. Consequently, there is a distinct slowing down of both jacks and bowls as they enter this fringe and many fewer jacks or bowls run over into the ditch. Skips could use this to improve the chances for many shots by moving the mat up the green for their medium and short jack lengths so that the jack is spotted for these lengths two meters from the front ditch. Thereafter the whole team can confidently deliver bowls behind the jack with reduced risk of losing them in the ditch. If the opposition does not recognize the situation they will likely end up with more short bowls!

An even more common situation is to find greens where the edging material (either metal or wood strip) that supports the grass at the edge of the ditch has become elevated above the grass surface creating a lip that inhibits and frequently stops bowls from falling into the ditch. Such a condition is particularly good at preventing jacks delivered long from dropping off the green.