Nailed Down Groundsheets

 In Canada, where I mostly reside, I had never seen a groundsheet on a lawn bowling green that was tacked immovably in one place, even though I have bowled now for ten years. I have seen lots of temporary, moveable groundsheets. In fact, where the playing surface is real grass as opposed to a synthetic carpet, groundsheets are often mandatory. Lawn bowling clubs that are always trying to keep their membership participation up will always have beginning bowlers who, a certain portion of the time, create divots as well as aging bowlers who can no longer bend down like they used to and now are consistent ‘dumpers’. Maintenance of a high-quality, fast, grass green is expensive; volunteers are usually both amateur and few in number, so some form of groundsheet is a standard solution.

So, at both Valverde LBC and Balaia LBC in Portugal, I was not surprised to find groundsheets although this was the first time I had seen them at either club in the years before the Covid interruption. What surprised me was to find them permanently tacked down and consequently not moveable.

Upon inquiring at Valverde I was told that they had tried moveable groundsheets but they were being lifted by the winds. Although this is observed occasionally in Canada it has never been enough of an issue to encourage the ‘controlling body’, (as it is described in The Laws of World Bowls), to bring out the nails. The more prevalent difficulty in Canada with using groundsheets is that they can seriously interfere with the path of an incoming bowl when the jack is resting on or past the groundsheet. A bowl traveling on its inward bias can catch the edge of a ground sheet and be deflected along that edge.

When I was bowling in Australia, I never saw a groundsheet and the prevailing sentiment, as best I could estimate it, was, “If the weather requires groundsheets, it is too inclement to bowl at all.”

I hear some similar objections in the Algarve but I have not encountered, even among the best players, anyone whose delivery is so precise that the short distance of traverse of the bowl on the groundsheet can contribute in any significant way to the deviations in their performance.

My objection to a fixed groundsheet is not that it reduces the precision, accuracy, or benefit of experience for any player but that it removes one of the important strategic elements of the game itself- moving the mat. 

I know that I am in the overwhelming minority when I maintain that this is a substantial change. At the same time, I want to be clear that despite this loss, I unambiguously support using these grass protectors in whatever form controlling bodies feel is necessary. Protecting the quality of the playing surface must be our highest priority.

Although in social bowls moving the mat forward by more than say a meter is rarely seen, it is part of the game. In fact, as can be seen by watching competitive bowls either outdoors or in, moving the mat up the maximum possible distance is the most frequent tactic when trying to change the flow of a game. Moving the mat up to at least two meters from the hog line is the most dependable way to deliver the jack for a shorter end. With the mat two meters short of the hog line, so long as your jack delivery finishes within four meters of the forward ditch it will be acceptable for play. With the front edge of the mat touching a hog line you still have a target area two meters in length onto which to deliver a playable short jack!

For this reason, I prefer the moveable groundsheet-type grass protectors. They are inconvenient in high winds and they sometimes can interfere with bowls arriving at a jack but they do preserve the strategic options of our lawn bowls game.