For the lead bowler delivering the first bowl in the end it needs to be emphasized,: line is not the most important concern, weight is. If you are within three feet on either side of the jack, that is probably not going to get you a reprimand but being three feet short may. What one must emphasize is proper depth and it is your first bowl in the end that is most likely to be wrongly weighted. It is OK to be a yard past the jack and one should err on the side of being that distance past rather than short. Four feet short is a bad bowl; four feet long can be useful for the development of the head. Four feet short cannot be promoted easily so it is likely to stay out of the scoring, since the jack will probably be moved backward during the end. Grassing two bowls three feet past gives the vice and skip some things to work with in developing a scoring situation. A close bowl by a lead in triples rarely survives as the shot bowl. There are too many good bowlers to follow and a bowl close to the jack makes an excellent target for run-through shots. Even if both of the opposition lead’s bowls are 1st and 2nd shot, your side’s situation is not too bad so long as your bowls are behind the jack!
A healthy retiree discovers Lawn Bowls, a sport he can compete in for 20 years! After 12 years of playing year-round, he tells what seems to work. What doesn't. What can be changed quickly; what slowly, and what must be apparently left to chance.
I have to be honest as a lead bowler for many years now, I tend to make my first bowl in trips a long one. Often a yard or more long, however I then find the next bowl is often bang on, so it works for me and my skips have gotten use to it? On some very heavy greens like we get in the UK, a yard long can be a good bowl. Great blog, very informative.
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