During a visit with a friend in Sun City Arizona, I was advised that since he now played with a bowling arm, he now used a number 4 bowl instead of the number 3 because grasping the bowl in one’s hand was no longer relevant.
This got me thinking. Why stop there? The larger the bowl’s diameter the more measurements your side is going to win and the better your score!
A size 00 bowl, (and these smaller bowls are becoming more and more popular), has a diameter of 116 mm. While the size 6 is 128.5 mm in diameter. If the centers of these two bowls are the same distance from a jack, the size 6 bowl’s outside edge will be 6.25 mm closer than the size 00’s outside edge. In close measurements between the two, the large bowl will win handily.
Even in the case of my friend, Bob, who could have switched from a number 3 to a number 6, the change would place him 2.25 mm closer to the jack on each delivery (so long as the bowls don’t stay on edge ).
These largest-diameter bowls are now unpopular and a set can be picked up cheaply second-hand. Players using bowling arms should start picking these up for their own advantageous use!
I was given a set of size 7 bowls by the Etobicoke Lawn Bowling Club because no one was interested in them. One of these monsters is pictured!
