“After Four a Meter More” at Lawn Bowls

The Greenbowler blog has recently researched the effects of rain and wind on the delivery and rolling characteristics of a lawn bowl. There is another environmental factor which has some importance but it does not depend upon the weather from day to day— it changes from hour to hour.

I was reminded of the significance of this factor while watching a video from the 2023 Australian Bowls calendar. The commentators noted during the match that the competitors were increasingly leaving their bowls a bit short. They quoted an Australian saying, “After four a meter more.”

I had never heard this but it encapsulates in a memorable way an important bit of lawn bowling lore. When the bowling surface cools down its resistance increases modestly but quickly and the weight that was perfect earlier in the day, when for example it was sunny, becomes insufficient.  Even in overcast conditions, the high temperature for the day often comes between 3 and 4 o’clock. After that time you need to instruct your subconscious control mechanism that a little extra push is required!

How, When, and Where High Wind Can Affect Lawn Bowls

A strong, steady, or moderate wind with occasional strong gusts will affect the draw of a lawn bowl but really only on a fast green. In the northern hemisphere playing on grass, its effect on bias normally can be ignored. Playing on an outdoor carpet, bias correction deserves consideration, if the wind is high, the sun bright, and the surface hot. 

Strong winds affect weight on all surfaces because they throw off your body’s balance.

 

A headwind needs more weight and a tailwind needs less weight no matter the playing surface because some significant fraction of the extra distance we get when the wind is behind us is caused, not by the wind propelling the bowl, but by the wind tipping us to put more of our body weight into our delivery….just as a tailwind pushes us when on a bicycle. In contradistinction, a headwind reduces our forward momentum in our delivery.

If you are facing predominantly a headwind, start estimating to finish 1-2 meters behind the jack. Then, with subsequent bowls, you can subtract weight as necessary to improve your proximity to the jack. This way you will finish with fewer short bowls.

Be prepared to stop your delivery or step off the mat to wait out a really severe gust no matter its direction.

The following considerations that relate to a correction to your draw apply only to high winds combined with fast greens as noted above.

Larger heavier bowls can be expected to be deflected less by wind. So long as the weather is dry using a set of bigger bowls can be advantageous. If the weather is both windy and rainy, however, the rain will have the greater influence and smaller bowls that are easier to grip should be preferred. 

There is a hypothesis, based on an analogy, that bowls with grips should be slightly more resistant to being deflected by the wind. This, it is argued, is because the grip’s indentations would cause a more turbulent flow of air around the bowl. For golf balls, this has been scientifically studied and is why all commercial golf balls are covered with dimples. The disruption of the laminar flow around the golf ball as it flies through the air allows it to travel farther.

 This is a very weak analogy when applied to bowls. A lawn bowl is very much bigger than a golf ball. It has many fewer dimples. It is not arcing rapidly through open air without other wind-disrupting nearby surfaces (like the ground). 

So contrarily, but also without any scientific investigation, Jack High Bowls { https://www.jackhighbowls.com/help/lawn-bowls-gripped-vs-non-gripped-which-is-best/ } reports that some bowlers asseverate that their ungripped (ringed) bowls perform better in the wind than their bowls with grips. If I had to choose I would prefer the anecdotal reports of bowlers over a poppycock hypothesis based on a very dubious analogy. 

When would the wind be strong enough to be a consideration even on a fast surface? 

If standing at the head, you extend your bowl’s cloth horizontally from your waist and let it drop, the wind is of no consequence if the towel only blows 6 inches away from the vertical. Also, a wind needn’t, and really cannot, be taken into account if it is swirling without any consistent direction. Often you don't even need to drop your towel to read it….  just look at any movement or the angle it hangs at. If there are flags at the corners of the rink, look at them.

In a steady strong wind on a fast surface, the most common advice is to always bowl the wide hand. The wide hand, where there is a steady strong cross-wind, is the side towards which the wind is blowing. Bowl a narrower line than what you would choose without wind. You might get an idea of how much to narrow if you have gotten a chance to deliver the jack exactly down the center line.  From how much it has been pushed downwind by the time it has stopped you can estimate. For a stare point 3 meters out in front of the mat line, adjust by a tenth of the distance the jack has been deflected. For example, if the jack, delivered down the center line, has blown downwind by a meter, adjust 10 centimeters; if half a meter, adjust 5 centimeters. At lower wind speeds the adjustment will be less than your error in hitting your stare point! (my error anyway )

 Let us assume for example that the wind is blowing at right angles to the rink’s center line from your left side. Initially bowling on an aim line slightly to the right, that is, in the direction the wind is going (ie downwind), the wind will accelerate your bowl a tiny increment at its release, but 2/3 to 3/5 of the way down the green your bowl will bend back and encounter a slightly more significant but still only partial headwind that helps it come to rest. Provided the correct bias has been chosen your bowl still returns to center rink.

High winds on a fast green favor random error and random error improves the chances of the team with poorer fundamentals. Short ends reduce the time your bowl is moving and reduce the opportunities for the wind to interfere. Play those shorter ends as close as possible to any available windbreak. Move up the mat so you are closer to the clubhouse if that can deflect away the wind. Also, vices and skips may want to play a more aggressive game. Run-through shots have their impact before they are moving slowly enough to be much affected by wind. Finally, be patient about adjusting your line. Your shot may have been fine, it may have just been the victim of a wind gust. 

Bias Winds

The following paragraphs about ‘bias winds’ are only pertinent to play on very fast greens combined with strong winds. These are common in Australia, New Zealand, and wherever there are older greens with outdoor sand-filled carpets. I belong to one club with such a facility; James Gardens LBC in Toronto Ontario Canada. 

The term ‘bias wind’ appears in only one place on the internet— in the Using the Head blogs written by John J. Tupper. Despite its infrequent usage, I consider it a very useful term to reintroduce here. A ‘bias wind’ blows directly, head-on to a bowl as it slows down and finishes. It causes a bowl to stop more rapidly. In contrast, a ‘back bias wind’ is a wind coming from directly behind your bowl as it finishes.

The bowl experiencing a ‘back bias wind’ on really fast greens will seem to run on endlessly. This is because just as that bowl is slowing, it is being pushed from directly behind by the strongish wind.

No matter from what direction the wind comes, it will most dramatically change the path your bowl takes as it slows down. Consequently when you are bowling into the wind approach into the head will be flattened.

When the wind is from behind you it will stretch the entry into the head and make the angle between the line of entry and the centre line smaller.

What to Do About a Downpour of Rain During Lawn Bowls

Lawn bowls is a recreation and is played for pleasure. If a social roll-up is stopped suddenly by heavy rain everyone just runs for the clubhouse or scrambles to get one’s woods and heads home.

In a tournament, the same can’t happen.The Laws of the Sport of Bowls Fourth Edition set rules for what can and what cannot be done. In this blog, I will consider the best course of action for different situations so that your team will be well served while the rules are adhered to.

Downpour During but Not Close to the Finish of an End

The rules concerning Game Stoppages apply.

33.1 If a game is stopped because of darkness, weather conditions or any other valid reason by: 

• 33.1.1  the Controlling Body (or authorized person in the absence of the Controlling Body) (Greenbowler- this can be the event convener or the greenskeeper);
  
• 33.1.2  the umpire (Greenbowler- often there is no umpire) after an appeal has been made by the players; or
  
• 33.1.3  agreement between the players (Greenbowler- meaning the 2 skips since the preposition ‘between’ is used) when an umpire or a representative of the Controlling Body is not present;
  

the game must be continued either on the same day or on a different day. The scores will be as they were when the game was stopped. 

Suppose two teams are playing an end when the downpour occurs. The skips quickly agree to stop play. This means that according to Rule 33.2, the end is declared dead and will need to be replayed completely when bowling resumes. The moment the skips agree to stop play one of them, most appropriately whoever does not have the shot, should pick up the jack and fling it back towards the mat. By doing this there can be no later illegitimate argument that the end should be continued from where it was stopped. Doing so would be a violation of the rules so this action makes it de facto impossible!

Downpour During Skips’ Bowls

When the downpour comes the skip who has the mat has two choices: ask for a 10-minute delay or ask if the opposing skip would agree to stop the match. The skip on the mat does not need to explain the alternatives to the other skip but can propose the choice most beneficial to his team. If it seems likely that his team can win points in the end— 

he should ask for a 10-minute delay whereupon if the weather has moderated, the end can continue, or

If it seems that his team will lose points in the end, he can propose a stoppage of play which if accepted will make the end dead. If a stoppage is agreed he should pick up the jack so that no dispute about continuation is possible later.

If a 10-minute delay has been granted by the opposing skip but the time expires, but it is still raining, the Controlling body will, by then, have called a stoppage in play probably with a further delay. whereupon the end that had been delayed by agreement between skips becomes a dead end and will need to be completely replayed.

 

Downpour Just Before the Very Last Bowl is Played

If a skip is holding the last bowl of the end and has the mat when the torrential downpour arrives. He has the two choices above, plus one more choice:

• He can tell the opposing skip that he will not deliver the last bowl and pick up the mat. The end is consequently complete and the score must be tallied and the end counted.

Downpour After the Last Bowl is Played

Anyone can ask for and get agreement for a stoppage but the end must be counted and the score added to the scorecards of both skips. The two players responsible for scoring must agree while they are on the green. They may be both running towards the clubhouse already, but they must agree and record a score! 

Playing Lawn Bowls on Wet Greens

Lawn bowling is more fun in good weather but if you want a quality of competition higher than club-social, you need to sign up for tournaments. These events usually feature sponsorship, food service, and prize money, so they mostly proceed irrespective of the weather. Only lightning or other dangerous conditions stop play so as a participant you need to have the proper kit to be as comfortable as the circumstances allow.

Bowlers can purchase special water-impermeable jackets and coveralls. These do repel water but they don’t provide much ventilation so a bowler may be protected from precipitation but not from perspiration. The rules about wearing only whites or team colors seem to be dismissed during prolonged rain. Whatever you can muster will be accepted. Many players prefer just to get wet so long as it isn’t cold at the same time.

Umbrellas are not allowed on lawn bowling greens because the point acts as a lightning rod.

If the weather report warns of inclement weather during the period of your play bring extra towels. This is often overlooked. Four or five towels will be needed if it is expected to rain throughout a match. Your team-mates may not be so prescient and you may have to lend to them. This might be your most consequential contribution of the day; it may improve every bowl delivered by your side. Certainly, it will be most welcome! 

Besides toweling the dirt and water from all the team’s bowls, it is useful to have some covering that can be draped over the heap of wiped bowls to keep the rain off until each is delivered.

This draping of your bowls can alternately be substituted by setting them on an extra mat placed on the bank behind the rink, covered with a small umbrella. However, this only works in the absence of wind!  

When it is raining,  several adjustments may help. If you have more than one set of bowls, try using the smaller bowls as you will find a better grip and an easier delivery with these when your hands are wet.  

Particularly if you normally do not use it, some form of Grippo can help. Gloves may improve your gripping. Golfers have special gloves…. or try those kitchen rubber gloves with grip ridges. I like the garden gloves that are cloth with rubberized palms and fingertips.  

If you have already practiced it, you can go so far as to change your grip. The claw grip requires your fingers to be tight against the bowl which is difficult when wet. A cradle grip supports the bowl with your entire palm. Delivering from a cradle grip provides more relaxed support when the bowl is wet and comprises a greater amount of rolling of the bowl off your fingers in the delivery. This gives the further benefit that it reduces divots. The more your bowl rotates in its initial few meters, the fewer the divots. 

A cradled bowl is less likely to be dropped during your downswing but may require a Bryant twist in your backswing to prevent the bowl from dropping at the top of its pendulum arc. 

The tendency to bend at any particular instant in the course of the bowl’s travel can be called the ’instantaneous bias’. This ‘instantaneous bias’ is a direct function of the instantaneous speed of the bowl at each point in its travel. Faster overall rolling produces less overall bending. On very wet greens your bowls effectively only swing in the last few meters, after having rapidly decelerated to where the bias can take effect. Because the initial force applied to a bowl delivered on very wet grass greens must not only overcome the natural resistance of the surface but also, as it spins around, throw off water transferred to the bowl from the grass, more weight must be provided on very wet greens and particularly when it is actually raining. That water is being thrown off the bowl is very evident from the ‘rooster tail’ that shoots up from the rolling bowl. Hence, narrow your draw for the heavier delivery on soggy grass greens and put more energy into the release.

When it is soaking wet or actually raining steadily it is better to play aggressively. It is more important than ever that you send all your bowls behind the jack. Run-through shots at the head are more likely to hit their target because the bias is much reduced by the heaviness of the green.

It is fair to say that when it is raining usually the sun is not shining. Also, when the sun disappears before the rain, it is normal for the air to rather quickly become colder.  The first raindrops quickly cool off the bowling surface. The temperature change can quickly increase the frictional force resisting the movement of the bowls and you need more weight to travel the same distance. So both the cooling of the rain and the resistance from the wetness Coming at the same time reinforce each other and make bowling heavier. On synthetic outdoor surfaces, the effect of the cooling is usually more than any resistance from the rain drops because there are no blades of grass to become heavy with beads of water on the synthetic carpet. In fact, a synthetic carpet can quickly wick away quite a lot of rainwater. It is only during or immediately after a torrential downpour that puddles appear briefly on most synthetic surfaces. In contrast, the change in temperature of a synthetic surface occurs even more rapidly than grass.

Moist but not Wet Grass

When the playing surface is just moist and does not actually have surface water droplets, the situation is different again and this is poorly understood and comes as quite a surprise to bowlers. The coefficient of rolling friction is less when the surface bears a microscopic film of water, such as when it is just moist to the touch. Less weight is required to achieve the same distance. Compounding this, when a bowl is released onto a moist surface it tends to slide at first and only then gets rolling. This sliding friction is less than the static friction encountered when a bowl lands on a completely dry surface so less energy is used up getting a bowl rolling at speed on the moist surface.

Laws of the Sport of Bowls fourth edition

6.2.6 To gain a better grip during adverse weather conditions a player can, before delivering their bowl, lift the mat, turn it over, and replace it in its original position.

Top Topics in the Greenbowler Blog

 

There are now hundreds of Greenbowler blog articles. For the convenience of readers, I have listed some of the most common topics. By putting these or other words into the in-blog search gadget a selection of the most pertinent articles will be presented. The more common groupings are:

 

• Block shots
• Controlling weight
• Head reading
• Measuring
• Moving the mat
• On- shots
• Practice
• Shooters’ stance
• Significant rules
• Strategy & Tactics
• Teaching
• Travel 
• Visualization

Aim Line with Mat Up at Lawn Bowls

Imagine that, when the mat was on the back T, you found that the correct aim line runs to a point on the front bank a particular number of meters to the side of the rink number.

On this theoretically perfectly flat rink, with the jack now sitting on the forward T and the mat brought forward, what fraction of that distance should you now use to deliver your bowl with the mat up?

This is an important question for players who want to actively move the mat. The change from bowling about 30 meters from T to T to bowling 21-23 meters from a mat drawn up to the Hog line changes several things simultaneously.

First, the curve of your bowl is going to pass over completely new areas of the rink. This is important because ( spoiler alert ) rinks are not actually flat over their entire surface!

Second, if you take an aim line running from the center of the mat to a point on the forward ditch, that point on the forward ditch moves closer to the rink number.

Then, third and most obviously, the required weight becomes markedly less.

That fraction  = {d.sin(tan^-1 W/L)}/W 

Where:

d is the distance to a jack on the forward T

W is the distance in meters from the rink number to the aim point on the forward bank and

L is the distance from the back T to the forward bank

This fraction turns out to substantially vary as a function of the full length of the green. Perhaps surprisingly, there is little variation as a function of the rink’s width.

I have prepared a table below showing the fractional change in aim point.

Notice that for small changes in mat position around the back T, any aim point on the forward ditch changes by an amount less than the likely error in delivering your bowl! Practical result— small changes in length around the back T are not pertinent for aiming.

Distance to jack For a 34 meter rink          For 40 meter rink

d=21 meters         0.65  ( ∿ 2/3 )                  0.55

d=23 meters 0.72  ( ∿ 3/4 )                  0.61

d= 27 meters 0.84  ( ∿ 5/6 )                 0.71

d= 30 meters 0.94  ( ∿ 20/21 )                 0.79

Lawn Bowling Triples: Maximizing Individual Skills by Having your 2nd Best Player Lead!

 

According to Law 40.1.10 of the Laws of the Sport of Bowls Fourth Edition, Skips can, at any time, delegate their own powers and any of their own duties (except those described in law 40.1.7 which all pertain to the scorecard) to any other members of the team as long as they tell the opposing skip immediately. 

In spite of this, I have seen without exception that skips place their least skilled bowler as the one who delivers the jack and the first bowls for their side. 

Why do they do this? The answer: because they believe, incorrectly, that if they put this less skilled bowler to deliver bowls in the second position, that person will be required to measure, count shots, and direct the head when the skip goes to the mat. 

But as Rule 40.1.10 paraphrased above acknowledges a skip is completely entitled to have his/her best teammate center the mat, deliver the jack, bowl first for the team, supervise the head when the skip goes to the mat, do the measuring, and report the score to the skip. The skip can then have his/her weakest bowler, bowl in the second position, and do the raking! All the normal lead and vice duties can be switched! All that is mandated is that such a skip must inform the opposing skip immediately.

There is an efficiency in doing this. Usually, as the two most experienced players on the team, they can communicate more deftly with signals to move the mat forward and backward and then get the mat aligned on the center line more quickly.

Then come the strategic benefits. The skip’s best teammate now gets the opportunity to deliver the jack to the length the skip indicates. Not only does this make more precise jack lengths more likely, but it also reduces the times the jack is too short, out of bounds, or in the forward ditch.

Advantages arise in the play as well. Because your best teammate is leading the way against what is usually the other side’s weakest bowler, your team is more often holding shot after the first six bowls have been delivered. Your best teammate has had unobstructed or minimally obstructed draw shots toward the jack. Your side has a reduced risk of playing those too-short-blocking bowls.

But now your weakest player must deliver alternating bowls with the other side’s vice. Well, if short bowls come now they may be blocking a head where your side is already more likely shot. Or maybe all your side needs is protection behind the jack. These are lower-skill assignments. Get the weight right and don’t be narrow.

This strategy has worked very well for me in inter-club competitions and above. Your teammates need to understand the reasons for the change.  It needs to be clear to your number two that the change augments both his/her responsibility and authority. The person who now delivers the 4-6th bowls for your side normally will immediately feel greater responsibility has been assigned to him/her even though the nonplaying duty is still raking.

I do not recommend this change for social games or other club roll-ups. The newer players who so often play lead need some opportunities to learn mat placement and jack delivery. Besides in open draws the person playing skip does not know the other team members so well.