A good lawn bowler recognises the characteristic path that any lawn bowl takes as it rolls down a level rink. It is recognition of that particular curving trace that allows a bowler to visualise the correct delivery before making it. This visualisation enables control of line and length.
Sometimes, however, as one watches either one’s own or someone else’s bowl travelling, it seems to deviate by going straight for some distance or even curving the wrong way. This is often referred to as ‘backing up’. The late great David Bryant would say that there seems to be a straightener on the green.
What actually is happening? Why does it appear to affect some deliveries but not others? And how should we adjust when we see it happening?
A useful clue is provided by another instance of backing up, where we can see the cause. Sometimes where weather has softened the green or at clubs where there is a high risk that some members are damaging the green by improperly dumping their bowls, ground sheets are put down at both ends of the rink. Where these are put down, sometimes a bowl en route to the jack encounters the edge of one of these ground sheets, with the result that the bowl runs along the edge of this ground sheet rather than proceeding in its normal curved path towards the jack. The edge of the ground sheet has straightened that bowl’s path. The edge of the ground sheet has presented a small ridge too high for the bowl to climb over.
Exactly the same thing is happening when one sees a bowl back up on the green. It has encountered a ridge on the rink. The only difference is that in this case, the ridge is too well camouflaged to see.
‘But,”’ you might say, “surely there are these unlevel ‘ridges’ all over the playing surface, yet, I almost always see a smooth curving path for my bowls.”
Yes, there are irregularities everywhere, but you will only see a ridge in a bowl’s path large enough to be noticed as a ‘back up’ when
- The ridge is longer and straighter than average, and when
(ii) the asymptote to the curve of your bowl is parallel to the ridge where they come close together.
This can be better understood with the diagram above.
One rarely detects a lawn bowl ‘backing up’ during the first part of its travel; it is from the point where it has moved its widest on the rink and subsequently begins curving back towards the jack that this aberration is seen. The reason is that when just out of the hand, the bowl has enough energy to overcome any ‘ripples’ in the flatness of the playing surface, and it is these imperfections that ultimately cause the ‘back-ups’ or ‘straightening’ that we see.
What to Do About It
When you observe a bowl backing up, no matter whose bowl it is, your conclusion should be that you don’t want to have the same problem. So you need to do something about it. This may be as simple as bowling on the other hand. This is the most certain way to avoid the risk; however, this is not always an option. A less disruptive option is to change the position of your feet on the mat so that your bowl does not travel on as wide a path. The goal, here, is to get on the inside of the ridge, as in path B in the diagram.
It is always possible that your bowls will not interact with the ridge in the same way as the unfortunate delivery you observed. The closer the profile of your bowl model is to that of the model that is being disturbed, the greater the risk that you will encounter the same problem.
