Head Analysis: When the Jack is Really a Wider Target at Lawn Bowls!

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The jack is only 64 millimeters in diameter. No wonder trailing the jack intentionally is so difficult. But sometimes it would seriously help your side if it were moved back a bit. Fortunately, there are situations where the target for moving the jack is significantly enlarged.

Suppose the head looks as in the figure above. Certainly, it would be very beneficial if the jack (lemon yellow circle) could be rolled a bit further down the rink since your bowls are the orange ones. The black bowls belong to your opposition.

You need not despair because the target to achieve jack movement is actually as wide as the cluster of bowls immediately in front of it. That is to say, if you can strike at any point on those two front bowls there is an excellent chance that the jack will be displaced backward towards your waiting catcher bowls.

Try practicing a running shot through the cluster with about 4 meters of weight!

The Remarkable Shot that Taught Us Some Rules

 

On Hallowe'en day the weather was mild in Toronto Canada so we had a pick-up men's pair match at James Gardens LBC. An unusual situation arose sending us scrambling to the Laws of Bowls Crystal Mark 4. Extraordinarily, we have images of the head position taken before the final shot of the end; the shot that elicited the questions. 

The top image shows part of the head before the delivery of the last blue bowl. My bowls are the lemon yellow ones; two close to the ditch and another in the ditch beside the jack. My ditched bowl is a toucher. None of my partner's bowls are close enough to be in the picture.  The green bowls and the single blue bowl belong to the opposition. The visible blue bowl is also a toucher. Although it can't be seen, all paths to knock my two yellow bowls into the ditch are blocked so my opponent with his last single blue bowl decided to try to move his single blue toucher to reduce the count.

He delivered a drive aiming to slice his toucher and send it in the direction of all the yellow bowls. In the event, he hits the shortest green bowl, bounces off it towards the yellow bowls, bounces off the bank, and removes the yellow bowl on the rink closest to the jack.  To add to the fun his blue bowl stays exactly where the yellow bowl it displaced had been sitting.

In the actual game, we incorrectly thought this bowl was live and the result was we scored just one - my yellow in the ditch. 

This was incorrect as we discovered later.

37.17.1 A bowl is a dead bowl if: 

• 17.1.1  it is not a toucher and comes to rest in the ditch; 
• 17.1.2  it is not a toucher and rebounds onto the rink after contact with the face of the bank or with the jack or a toucher in the ditch

37.5.3  Displacement of a bowl at rest

• If a bowl at rest or a toucher in the ditch is displaced by a non-toucher rebounding from the face of the bank, an opponent or the marker must put it back to its former position. 

My side should have scored three! But what a shot!