Big or Little? Winning the Mat

When lawn bowlers don’t have a coin in their pocket at the beginning of play, one skip will often roll a bowl a short distance, end over end, pineapple fashion, and ask the opposing skip, “Big or little?” If the skip calling the outcome is correct, that skip gets to choose either to take possession of the mat or have the last bowl in the first end.

Although the chances of either outcome are approximately the same, there is a small difference in favor of calling, “Big”  because those bowls that,  after the pineapple tumbling motion, finish on their running surface more often fall with their big decal uppermost. I have tested this experimentally and it does seem to prove out (59:54). 

This is not statistically significant but if you want to win the choice it seems best to call out, “Big.”