Displaced Jack Near the Boundary at Lawn Bowls

 

In the situation where the jack has been significantly displaced towards one of the boundary lines and you and the opposing skip each have a single bowl remaining, special considerations apply. Tactically, it matters who sits shot and how many points are at issue.

What sets this situation apart is:

There is an increased chance that any upcoming delivery will finish out of bounds and become a dead bowl.

With any delivery to a seriously displaced jack, a bowl directed towards it is likely to pass over less disturbed, fresh grass where the required bias and weight will be unknown.

If your opponent must bowl before you, you need to watch especially carefully the line taken over any of this fresh green. Your advantage is that you can learn a lot from your opponent’s bowl.

If you must bowl before your opponent, it matters greatly who is sitting shot. If your side has the best bowl already, then the most you can lose is a single point (unless that shot bowl gets removed). Although delivering your bowl inside-out is likely to be at least partially blocked by bowls around the jack’s previous location, there is the advantage that you will not be teaching your opponent the correct line for his/her last bowl.

If you are already down in the head you probably have to risk showing your opponent the line because you need to save points by beating the bowls that are already waiting to be counted against you.

Removing Strain from your Lawn Bowls Delivery

 

Every so often I deliver a very wobbly bowl often called a ‘pineapple’ or sometimes a ‘cucumber’. I ascribe this error to having too tense an arm and pushing out the bowl aggressively just at release.

In one video of a great YouTube series from the ‘Delivery Doctor’  Bowls Delivery Sequence 04 The No Backswing Backswing, he prescribes at one point the solution to this problem. The Doctor says that in the pre-delivery set-up position, the bowler should support the bowl with his free hand by placing it under that hand thereby cupping both bowl and the bowling hand. With this support by the free hand the bowling arm can then be completely relaxed since all the weight of the bowl is being supported externally. This cupping support is put in place after completing a few practice swings along the chosen aim line and just before the actual backswing is started.

Now with the bowling arm completely relaxed, the supporting hand is withdrawn and the bowling arm is allowed to naturally fall and then swing back to whatever amount flows naturally propelled by the simple force of gravity. Being set up correctly assists and even enforces the arm swing to stay over the chosen aim line. The forward swing is then subconsciously directed according to the length of the required bowl’s path, as visualized moments before during the set-up for the delivery.

Although my own delivery differs from that taught by the Delivery Doctor in some respects, this cupping of the delivery hand allowing the delivering arm to become totally relaxed is an effective modification of delivery that promotes a smoother launch of a bowl. 

Do Lawn Bowling Skips Really Think Far Ahead?

 

Commentators on professional lawn bowling videos often say that top bowlers think several bowls ahead in each end. Is this actually likely? Or, does it depend upon the tactical situation in the head? 

Remember— the situation in the head depends as much upon the location of the opposition bowls as upon the planned disposition of your own side’s bowls.

What I can believe is that certain dispositions of bowls- comprising both one's own and those of the opponents- can present such a substantial combination of positive outcomes that a skip can expect that shot to be eventually attempted. This realization, when such a position arises, can cause him/her to prepare the head to increase or decrease its likelihood, depending upon whether successful execution would be beneficial or detrimental to the side.

What I am proposing is that particular dispositions of bowls trigger planning further ahead, while many others suggest nothing more than that the next bowl should be delivered as close as possible to the jack! 

A skip is unlikely to start formulating a comprehensive strategy for an end so long as (s)he is confident at outdrawing whatever has been delivered so far in the end. It is really only when a bowl is sufficiently close to the jack that it is unlikely to be bettered that both offensive or defensive longer-term strategizing is triggered.