A Tactic at Lawn Bowling Triples When Your Vice Can’t Get the Right Weight

The Greenbowler blog has regularly expressed a preference for playing your second-best player and, wishfully, your best draw bowler in the lead position. When this is the choice you have made, you probably have a lead who is also able to deliver a jack within a meter or two of where the skip asks.

A situation can sometimes arise when really no player on the rink is bowling particularly well, with the effect that each side is winning its share of ends. What you sense is holding you back from moving in front in the game is that your vice is all over the place with respect to weight control. You feel that if your vice could get some bowls decently close to the jack, it would make a consequential difference.

The skip will have been noticing how far down the rink these vice—delivered bowls predominantly finish, and when in possession of the mat, he/she can indicate to the lead to deliver the jack to that length. This is an instance of using jack length to support the member of your own team experiencing the most difficulty. Often, this required jack length will be an intermediate length because that is often the vice’s natural length.

This use of jack length contrasts with the more common ones I usually recommend, whereby I call for very short or very long jacks to try to interrupt superior play by the other side that is defeating, to that point, your best efforts. 

My Nomination for Best Bowls Game Ever

 

Great ends from 15-19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7peI7nTTc&t=1s

Watch the Grass an Opposing Lawn Bowler Takes in the First Two Ends

 

In Canada, whether in open tournaments or club rollups, there are no practice ends. Consequently, at the start of play, lead bowlers have no evidence upon which to assess the correct grass for their first deliveries in the first two ends. Even so, more often than not, I see the lead given the advantage of playing the second bowl, paying no attention to the line taken by that opponent who is required to play first. Sitting on the bench, chit-chatting with other bowlers, arranging the bowls in neat lines, polishing bowls, or wetting a bowl’s cloth; all of these are more frequently witnessed than a lead who conscientiously stands a few meters behind the bowler on the mat and carefully notes that opponent’s aim line and that bowl’s finishing position, to learn from it.

Yes— different makes of bowls have different biases, but no rule forbids one from learning the model and the manufacturer of your opponent’s bowls. If this can not be interpreted at your stage of experience, your skip can tell you whether the player whose position opposes yours has wider or narrower bowls than yours. Furthermore, on slow greens, like we too often encounter in Canada, the aim line will not vary a whole lot among makes. 

With proper attention, the lead, who bowls second, should more often than not, outperform with the first bowl in either of the first or second ends!  

A Bold Lawn Bowling Strategy

A sports strategy is a plan that can be made before a sports competition begins. It is not determined by the fine details of a particular match situation. This latter is the business of tactics.

I propose that a team ( let us consider a pairs team ) decide that when it has possession of the mat during a match, it will place the mat at the closer hog line and deliver a jack that gets centred on the forward T. 

The end is played tactically from that point on. If the end is won, the same strategy is repeated in the next end. If the end is lost, the side attempts to recover the mat and restart its strategy. The strategy tries to force the opponents to play a game with a fixed minimum jack length and a dead bowl line 2 meters behind the jack.

The idea upon which the strategy is based is that there will be an advantage in playing a game the details of which your side has practiced much more than the opposition and which has some features distinctly different from the standard bowls contest.

To be successful in the execution, the lead must be accomplished at rolling the jack reproducibly 21-23 meters. This seems like a tall order, but it is a precise challenge that can be practiced by borrowing a box of 16 jacks from the clubhouse.

Why should this strategy work?

 

In Canada, the minimum jack length is 21 meters; in most other countries, the minimum distance is 23 meters. First, few other teams practice bowling either 21 or 23-meter ends from a mat at the hog line.

According to bowls.co.uk, “At the beginning of the first end, the mat is placed lengthwise on the centre line of the rink, the back edge to be four feet from the ditch.” I can find no official evidence for this purported rule. There is no such requirement in the Laws of Sport of Bowls, Crystal Mark 4. Consequently, this is no longer required. The lead in the first end can place the mat anywhere from T to the closest hog line. The strategy proposed can be applied from end 1, so if the toss is won, you can take the mat and move it forward!

What is so different about playing this short game?

The re-spot position is identical to the initial spot for the jack. Putting the jack cleanly out of bounds will get it returned to the position from which it came!

Knocking the jack out of bounds is extremely unlikely; unless given a sharply glancing blow, the jack will end up live in the ditch. 

The team using this strategy should have learned to deliver the more accurate running bowl (since this is a more accurate delivery than a drive, with the best chance of ditching the jack), and this shot also provides the best chance to drive an opposing shot bowl into the ditch, where it will be dead. 

If the jack makes it to the ditch, the area available for the opposition to draw their own shot bowl is only half as big as usual. This is because the available area is only a semicircle around the jack. When the jack is in the ditch, placing a shot bowl behind the jack is not available.

 It is almost guaranteed that some deliveries will finish in the ditch as dead bowls. If the opposition does manage to deliver the shot bowl, your side has available the running shot to cancel it.

The probability of a rebounding bowl is much greater, and a rebounding toucher is live: 17.2.3.

The probability of a jack rebounding onto the rink is much higher, and a rebounding jack is live: 21.1.

Many more dispositions of bowls near the jack will constitute a target for a running shot because the depth of the head can be no more than 2 meters, so the gaps between bowls, or between a bowl and the jack, will be effectively smaller. A running shot is more likely to hit something.

Paul Foster bowls all his deliveries with the form required to deliver a runner; no backswing and a big forward step. In a famous open singles match, he came from behind in the last two ends by moving the mat up to the hog line and delivering a minimum length jack. You can see this starting at about the 1:17:02 mark in the online video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VEGkkHgZ6o

Rule About Standing in the Head

A question arose during a club match. Where could the skip of the team not in possession of the rink stand? There was no disagreement that such skip should be required to move if so requested by the bowler on the mat. Rule 13.4 forbids the players in possession of the rink from being interfered with, annoyed, or distracted in any way by their opponents. The question was whether the person directing the head and whose side was in possession of the mat could require the opposing directing person to move entirely away from the side of the rink where the planned bowl was going to be delivered even in the absence of a request from the person on the mat. Is that skip’s personal feeling of annoyance, interference, or distraction encompassed by this rule? On that precise point it would probably take an actual umpire to decide! 

But what is indisputable is that a skip, that is not controlling play, because he/she is not in possession of the rink, must be behind the jack. This is established in rule  12.1.2.1.

12.1.2.1  Players at the head-end of the rink and who are not controlling play must stand: behind the jack and away from the head if they are members of the team which is not in possession of the rink.

There might be a question of what ‘behind the jack’ means. Rule 12.1.3 assists in assigning a meaning by specifying what ‘behind the jack’ does not mean: it is not “either level with or in front of the jack.” 

• 12.1.3  As soon as a bowl is delivered, a player who is controlling play from a position that is either level with or in front of the jack, must take their position as described in law 12.1.2.1. 

So behind the jack does not mean directly behind ( as in parallel with the centre line). It means beyond the jack and closer to the front ditch than the jack.

The next point at issue is what precisely “away from the head” means.

Since the definition of ‘head’ in the Laws of Bowls Mark 4 Edition is “the jack and any bowls which have come to rest within the boundaries of the rink of play and are not dead” it seems likely that all portions of the rink (i) short of whichever live bowl rests closest to the front ditch and (ii) between the left-most and right-most live bowls, would be part of the head. 

Thus, the person who is currently directing play could require that all members of the opposing team be outside of, and not obscuring, any part of this defined ‘head.’  Thus it becomes an act of generosity and sportsmanship if that person allows any opponent, including the opponent who in turn directs the head, to stand immediately behind him/ her and inside the head!

So the skip ( or designated directing player) not in possession of the mat should follow any requests of the opposing skip. Otherwise, the Laws of the Sport of Bowls, strictly interpreted, could move him/her much further away! 

Helping a Teammate without saying a Word

I think it is bad form to offer another player advice during a roll-up game of bowls. But sometimes it is possible to improve a person’s performance without saying a word.

Recently, I was skipping in a game of drawn triples. I had no knowledge about my other team members. In fact, I hadn’t ever met them. In the first end, I signalled my lead to deliver forehand and he brought his hand across his body in the follow through and the bowl almost left the rink after it cut across the centre line. This was repeated twice more, even though I was giving him grass with an allowance for this difficulty.

I never signalled for another forehand the whole rest of the match— always backhand, no matter what the situation in the head. Intuitively, people do not bring their arm across when bowling backhand. His weight was good, and he made a significant contribution in the remainder of the game!

Only afterwards did I tell him what he needed to fix on his forehand.

Take the Full 30 Seconds

 

I was bowling in one of the district playdowns last week in Toronto, and sitting at the table next to me in the clubhouse, a coach from the Canadian National Bowls team was telling some competitors whom she was coaching to visualize the path of their contemplated delivery and not to deliver the bowl until this was clear in their minds.

This got me thinking: could a person improve performance simply by taking 25-30 seconds to prepare for each delivery?

 This would provide sufficient time for multiple visualizations that would move one’s gaze back and forth between a stare point (say at 3-5 meters in front of the mat) and the jack.

Doing this as part of a delivery routine would very likely dramatically improve proper concentration, and that would provide benefits to all the players with less than perfect discipline.

Another Reason to Move the Mat

 

James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club has an outdoor sand-filled carpet. This is the second season of play since its installation and much of the fine whitish sand has worked its way into the carpet fibers as they are supposed to; however, most bowlers release their bowls slightly above the carpet surface and this leaves a series of dots where the bowl has bounced ever so slightly. This is caused by the re-emergence of sand where the bowl hits. The result is that one can see clearly the track of a prior bowl.

A first bowler who finds a good line gives away that line to the opposing bowler who bowls next. Furthermore, subsequent bowlers are gifted with increasingly well-marked paths on both forehand and backhand.

The remedy is to move the mat so that these paths no longer apply.

Only a small forward or backward change will do the job while leaving plenty of marks from the previous bowling to obscure the correct line.

Why Whether the Opponent’s Bowl is Above or Behind the Jack Matters

 

Observing from the mat, a bowler often cannot be sure whether an opposition bowl that has finished to the side of the jack is partially in front of the jack or is distinctly behind it.  You will often hear top bowlers asking the marker about this.

Why is it important? The questioner wants to know whether his bowl, if it finishes resting squarely against that opposing bowl, will be the closer of the two. If the opposition bowl is partially short of the jack, it will be better so long as it isn’t pushed back. If the target bowl is behind jack level and the delivered bowl comes to rest against it (or moves it further back) the delivered bowl will be closer.

So if the marker responds that the opponent’s bowl is short of the jack, the questioner is more likely to bowl the other hand. If the competitor’s bowl is reported to be behind the jack, bowling on the same hand as where the opposing bowl rests has advantages, mutatis mutandis.

Notice that this is one situation where being a tiny bit short of jack-high is better than finishing behind the jack!

Lawn Bowling Tactics: Removing Opponent’s Best Bowl

 

At Valverde LBC the other day, I was watching a pairs match and a tactical situation arose where repeatedly the skip bowler of an experienced team played what seemed a lower probability shot when something significantly better was available. 

The side that missed the opportunities was lying one; they had a bowl close up to the jack- within a few centimeters. The opponents held the second shot about a bowl in front of the jack but about 12 inches to the right.  What made the situation special was that the side holding shot also had the 3rd and 4th best bowls located about 18 and 24 inches behind the jack and 18 and 24 inches to the left.

There were other shorter bowls blocking approaches down the center of the rink. 

The skip of the side holding shot delivered two bowls down the right side trying to add a second shot. There was a path to the jack but in my opinion, both bowls should have been delivered down the left side trying to push out the opponent’s best bowl because if it were removed they would have scored 3 or 4 depending upon whether the delivered bowl remained in the count. The path leading to the opponent’s best bowl was equally open.

Other good outcomes that would have been possible coming from the left side would be a jack trail back to those waiting 3rd and 4th catchers on the right and a dead draw to the jack. 

The only negative would have been to knock the opposing bowl in for shot but considering how close the shot bowl was to the jack, this would have been unlikely. 

The lesson: Even if your side already holds shot, consider the contribution to the score if the opponent’s best bowl gets removed.  

Take a Big Enough Backswing so your Subconscious has a Smooth Choice

By the time you have at least 6 full years of lawn bowling experience, your subconscious can be given responsibility for controlling the weight in your lawn bowling delivery. As David Bryant suggests in a useful video tutorial: you choose an aim line to bowl down; you take a stare point on that line; and then you look back and forth between this stare point and the target position (usually the jack) until you feel comfortable with the visualized trajectory. Then you let your mind go blank and send the bowl over your stare point.

Now, even though I have been bowling for 13 years, I have been playing rubbish bowls for the first few weeks since coming to Valverde LBC in Almancil Portugal, where I am spending the winter months.

What was going wrong? Usually, the most common error I make is failing to get my stepping foot planted before my arm swing delivers my bowl.

No— that wasn’t the problem. Maybe I wasn’t careful and methodical enough drawing my bowling arm back along the extension of the aim line behind the mat. No— checking that didn’t solve things.

Analyzing my bowl results suggested that the problem was related mostly to weight. For too many shots I found myself pushing out the bowl and applying too much energy at the end.

Well, I have now found the answer. Often, my backswing wasn’t high enough to smoothly propel my bowl the required distance and my subconscious was trying to compensate for this by over-accelerating my swing somewhat, trying to ‘steer’ the bowl and destroying smoothness from the motion.

In contrast, my subconscious had no difficulty slowing my arm motion down when bowling to a short jack even though my higher backswing would have permitted me to easily deliver to jacks at any length.

P.S. When you have less than 6 years of experience playing lawn bowls I have found you need to consciously control those elements of your swing that affect length (backswing length, crouch degree, step length, etc.) because your subconscious does not have a big enough ‘training set’ to do it itself. 

Bowling Into Danger: Ezra R. Wyeth

I wanted to write a blog article about 'bowling into danger' but in searching for what had already been written I found this article by Ezra R. Wyeth from 1966. It is my pleasure to reproduce it here where such good advice can be found more easily!  

https://www.bowlsusa.us/uploads/7/5/9/0/75903269/1966-02.pdf

I find two important differences between bowling in the U.S.A. and elsewhere, and they both amount to the same thing - an unbelievable waste of bowls by many of our players. The first is the use of the block and the second is the attempt to match a catcher. I have never consciously played a block and only in dire extremity have I tried the other-both for the same reasons. Firstly, they require more skill than I possess; secondly, there are usually easier and more productive shots available. If you will be patient for a while, I will try to explain about matching the catcher. 

Let me start with a head like this. 

Playing the forehand, the lead has drawn a jack-high bowl, slightly wide, six inches from the jack. His opponent has followed with a bowl a foot behind and to the left. It is a safe bet that in 99 cases out of 100, the player by choice ( or at the direction of his skip ) will change his hand. He does this for three reasons. He believes the jack will be shifted; he can anticipate the direction it will go; and lastly; he thinks he can draw to a spot on the green. If he is completely honest he would admit to himself that he has little right to believe any of these reasons. If, on the other hand, he is stubborn and refuses to face the facts he will just have to count the number of times during a game that his beliefs are proved true. 

Only a superman could do what hundreds of players try to do each time they play. For any player the choice is simple. Either he plays like a superman or he assumes human status and plays an easier shot. The thing to do in the situation described above is to play the shot his opponent must play. His opponent has the choice of three shots:

 

• draw the shot anywhere within a twelve-inch circle 
• play to reach the shot with enough strength to take its place or to turn in off it 
• try to trail the jack 

The second is by far the best shot to play as it offers a greater margin for error. Our player, therefore, tries to play just that shot-  and for about seven good reasons. 

Examine all the possible outcomes. If he is short he can draw a second shot in a semi-circle, 24 inches in diameter. If shorter, he can well finish on a line that appears to be in his opponent's draw. If he gets his objective, he will have two shots. If he manages to turn his own bowl in or to wick off it, he will have an excellent position. If he has the right weight, or slightly less, and misses his first bowl he can draw a shot in a position to the right or left of his opponent's bowl. 

If his weight is right and he trails the jack he may lose the shot. Even so, he still has two bowls close to the shot, and his chances of losing more than one shot are reduced. There are other possibilities. If he is heavy he can take his other bowl out or shift the jack, or he can have a bowl behind the jack. If you are one of the stubborn ones and feel that in this last paragraph, I have undermined my position, please remember that these things can and do happen if a player changes his hand. 

Before you dismiss everything I have said, let me offer the most important reason of all. One of the delights of playing lead or singles is that a player can usually play the better side of the rink. The greens we play on rarely draw the same on both sides and one side is often faster than the other. It is usually much easier to play either the wide side or the narrow side consistently. A change of side means a change of green and a change of pace with a consequent increase in the chance of error. If you want more convincing proof than my arguments, you'll find it on the green. Borrow two bowls and place them in the positions shown above and try all the shots you like. The results will amaze you. 

After Watching Paul Foster’s Bowls Delivery

 

Paul Foster MBE has won the World Indoor Lawn Bowls Championship five times.

I think I saw something useful by stopped-frame examination of Paul Foster’s delivery in a match against Michael Dawes in the 2015 World Championships on Youtube.

 I noticed that as Foster starts his backswing he advances his non-anchor foot with the toe decidedly up in the air so that he necessarily plants it heel first. When it is in the air his sole is at an angle of 45 degrees above the horizontal.  In this way, he can smoothly rock his weight forward; his weight transferring from heel to full sole contact, then to toes. Then following smoothly his anchor foot comes up off the ground as he walks off the mat with his body moving forward like a sprinter coming out of the blocks.

 
This form combines with the idea that the delivery should start with your weight almost entirely on your anchor foot, so that the step forward is not restricted and does not bear any significant weight.

This will make weight transfer always the same. It compels the bowler to make contact with the heel of the advancing foot to provide smooth, rocking, weight transfer.

Suggested Adjustments to their Delivery for Older Bowlers

 

• To improve balance, use the Shooters’ stance
• To improve core stability, brace your body with your free hand on your forward knee in the ready position.
• To make your forward stepping smoother, raise the toe of the foot you will be stepping forward with while still in your set position.
• To keep your weight from shifting sideways, walk forward off the mat after releasing your bowl.
• To spare neck muscles, choose your aim line and stare point standing behind the mat.
• Target your bowl to finish 1 meter beyond the jack thereby reducing the likelihood of being short.

A Theory About the Lead’s Bowls Playing Lawn Bowls Triples

When the lead plays his bowls in a triples match at least 12 bowls are left to be played in every end. It cannot be guessed whether his team will need to be protective or aggressive. The skip and to a lesser extend the vice have indicators of how play is proceeding. What can the lead do to increase the value of those opening bowls?

I have an idea. The lead must try to create a head favourable to his side.

This is easier to do if his side has the mat but even bowling second there are superior and inferior contributions.

All three lead bowls should finish behind the jack. To increase the probability of this, the lead’s first bowl must be weighted to be intentionally long.

Since it is the plan to be consistently further behind the jack with this bowl and subsequently subtract weight to approach nearer the jack, this first bowl should be delivered so that, more likely than not, it will come across the centre line. Since the intent is to be intentionally long, the opportunity should not be wasted to possibly trail the jack!

The lead’s 2nd and 3rd bowls will be delivered with better information, both with respect to weight and line, than the first bowl. The first bowl is, in a sense, a ‘sighter’ bowl. It provides feedback about the rink conditions.

This is all that can be expected from the lead that does not possess the mat.

If one’s side does possess the mat, more is possible. It should be prearranged that the skip will decide on jack length: short, intermediate, or long, but the lead could be given authority to choose the mat position. If this permission is granted, the lead should choose the mat position so that whether a short, intermediate, or long jack is called for the jack will finish close to the forward T (2 meters from the front ditch).

Why do this? Because we have already decided the lead’s first bowl is going to be intentionally behind the jack and more likely than not, narrow, and if there is going to be a heightened chance that the jack will be trailed, the closer that trail takes the jack towards the front ditch, the more difficulty for the opposition.

If your side has possession of the mat and your skip calls for a short jack, where should you locate the mat? The answer is 2 meters behind the closest hog line, because from there you can try to roll the jack to the forward T, but even if it is 2 meters short of the T, it will still have traveled the requisite 21 meters (in Canada, 23 meters in some other countries). At the same time, you have 2 meters behind your target length before you are too long and fall into the ditch and give the jack away!

If an intermediate jack is requested, the mat position should be about 5 meters back from the closest hog line. If a long jack is called for, take the mat to the back T.

All this may be well and good, but sometimes you, as lead, will deliver a bowl short of the jack. If your line is still good and your bowl is only a little bit short, you may have a decent shot bowl! You still need to get behind the jack with your remaining bowls. 

More Comprehensive Lawn Bowls Signals Can Produce Better Game Results

Most novices know no more about signals than those indicating which hand to bowl on. This is because the single objective for beginner leads is to place at least one bowl close to the jack, and preferably it should become the shot bowl. Leads are actually only rarely asked to change hands, and niggling to obtain shot is frowned upon. (Niggling is trying to knock away the other lead’s bowls.) They should leave the takeout for the more experienced team members. When the opposing lead has clearly delivered a bowl that will almost certainly be shot, your skip is most likely to ask you to place receiving bowls or ‘catchers’. Your bowls should not be short, where they will obstruct your team’s effort to change the head. The saying is “when down be up.”

All team members should be able to read a variety of signs from the skip. Before stepping onto the mat, each person about to bowl should stand behind the mat and look down at the skip to receive signalled messages. The bowler can also signal questions for the skip, such as, “Are we up or down?” “Which hand do you recommend?”

Stop

At first, your skip will need to start every communication with this signal. Otherwise, the person on the mat may deliver a bowl before information is exchanged. The skip places both hands in front of his/her chest, palms facing towards the boiler on the mat. Like a traffic cop, the message is STOP.

Catcher Bowls

A proposal for a signal to place receiving bowls and make a sustained effort not to be short could be cupped hands. The hand on which the bowl should be grassed can also be indicated, or the lead can signal to be advised about the best side to bowl. Usually, the skip will not ask for a change in hand when asking for a catcher bowl.

Put the Bowl in this Spot

Sometimes the skip will want to signal that a bowl should be delivered to a particular spot. The skip may be worried that the jack could be knocked in among a group of opposing bowls. This can be signalled by pointing the index finger towards the ground at the desired spot and rotating in an inward spiral motion.

Put another Bowl in the Head

This signal must be delivered without fanfare. Unlike other signals, the object is to hide from the opponents what is being signalled. If the skip is concerned that a big count against is possible, if one of his team’s bowls is knocked out, the call will be for another close bowl in the head. The signal is to place the index finger on the side of the head as if scratching. The bowler should aim to draw to the jack, but not close to that single potential counter. In particular, the bowler should be especially cautious not to drive out that important bowl himself!

Cover the Back

A lead is unlikely to need to receive this instruction, but if the opposing lead delivers two or three bowls that are all good receiving bowls, a skip might call for these to be ‘covered’ by placing a bowl in their midst to prevent the opposition from trailing the jack into the cluster. The signal for a covering bowl could be both hands cupped over the head like a hat. Most often, covering will be required by the vice. Another form of cover asks for what is termed the ‘backest bowl’. This is the bowl closest to the ditch that is still in play. If the respot rule is in effect, the cover may be indicating a respotting location. The signal has a special meaning when playing under conditions where there are no dead ends and the jack is respotted. Covering in this situation requires bowling to one of the re-spotting locations in anticipation of an on-shot or drive to break up the head.

Jack or Bowl

When a bowl is jack high and there are 6 inches or less between the bowl and the jack, the pair presents a most enticing target. A skip may want to go after this target early, before the opponents can nudge either the jack or the bowl into a more protected orientation. The skip would signal jack or bowl, meaning that a controlled weight shot should be directed at the head, where hitting either the jack or the close sitting bowl would produce a great result. A possible signal for this would be for the skip to stand up close and directly behind the pair with both hands pointing down and with both palms away from the mat and alternately raise and lower each hand in turn while maintaining the palms open, hidden from the mat.

Run-On through X Meters

Signalling this tactic is very frequently encountered by players who are vice skips. What is being requested is that the bowler should deliver a shot that will pass through the head and continue on for several meters after making contact. The skip points with his index finger at the side of his head and then indicates, by raising some fingers, how much more weight should be placed on the bowl. A run through can also be called from the lead or second if one of the team’s bowls can be promoted onto the jack. If the bowl misses, it becomes a good catcher for future tries.
 

Drive or Up-Shot

Disrupting the head with sufficient force that the end is often killed or the jack respotted is the most frequent purpose of the drive shot. The drive is almost always played by the skip. Very occasionally, when the vice is a better driver, a skip may call for a drive from him or her. When a drive is called for, it is important that the opponents also know what is coming because the bowls on nearby rinks need to be protected, and there can be a danger of the jack flying through the air. When a signal is needed, it can be the person at the head holding an imaginary bowl with a straight arm above the head as high as he can reach. Everyone in the head must recognize that a runner is coming. Since most drives are delivered by the skip, signalling is rarely needed, but the signal is used as a warning. The skip makes this decision.

Block

When a novice is playing skip, there will be many occasions when he has the second last bowl still to deliver, but the best course is not to go near the head but take one’s chance that the opponent cannot convert it to their advantage with their single remaining bowl. In this situation, the novice skip may be called on to place a block shot to challenge the last bowler even more severely. This can be done by placing a short bowl that would interfere with either a drive or a run-through shot that could disrupt the head, whichever is most likely. A signal calling for a block shot could be tracing a square figure in the air with the index fingers of both hands used simultaneously.

A block will be most effective if one hand and the center drive are completely blocked by rather short bowls that cannot be promoted. Then, a very short blocker at about 14 meters in the path of the remaining draw shot would be most effective. It should be delivered inside out to keep it off the neighbouring rinks.

Do Not

Sometimes the skip wants to signal what (s)he does not want the bowler to do. The signal is forearms crossed in an X in front of the face. This signal, for best effect, should be preceded by the ‘stop’ signal because otherwise the partner on the mat may not give it the attention required.

STOP

The stop signal is sent by the skip waving two arms to get attention and then extending both arms horizontally in front, fingers together and palms facing the mat as if his/her hands were a traffic stop sign. The very important signal then follows once attention has been gained.

I would love….

Skip places hands one on top of the other over his/her heart. What follows this signal conveys what the skip wants the bowler to try. For example. I would love… followed by the sign for a blocker. Then followed by the signal Bowl to here. 

Bowl to here

This signal is used by the skip to ask the bowler to place his bowl as close as possible to a particular spot that is different from trying to bowl to the jack.. This signal is used for placing a blocker, placing a catching bowl, or bowling to a ‘false jack’. The skip hangs his bowling towel down over the spot (s)he wants the bowl to stop.

Chop & Lie on this Bowl

Sometimes your side would like to move an opposing bowl and take its position. This is called chop & Lie. The particular opposing bowl is the target and a little extra weight is needed. The skip can point close over the target and then make a repetitive sharp chopping motion with both hands.

If you regularly play with the same teammates, use these ortogether devise your own signals for what your team most often wants to communicate. 

Don’t Deliver the Jack Your Opponent’s ‘Natural Distance’ at Lawn Bowls

 

Each individual bowler has a particular ‘natural distance’ under a given set of green and weather conditions. This ‘natural distance’ is the number of meters his/her bowl will travel when delivered with a smooth, effortless, thought-free swing, on that rink, at that time.

Only players who have developed a grooved delivery after playing thousands of bowls have a ‘natural distance’. Tyros vary everything- position on the mat, posture, starting elevation of the bowl, degree of backswing, and length of step. With some or all of these shifting around, no natural length is possible: nor is any real control of length achievable.

Consequently, in this blog I’m talking about experienced bowlers playing against each other.

If there are practice ends most bowlers when they get them will deliver the jack to the length they are planning to play most often. Initially you can assume that this is their natural length. If you have the mat at the start of the match, do not deliver the jack this length! As play continues identify and remember any length at which the opposition seems particularly accurate. When you have the mat, remember and don’t play that length. In team bowls it is the skip who needs to be watching this, since it is the skip who calls for a particular length jack.

If you know nothing about the opposing side, assume that their natural distance is a medium length jack. Play longer or shorter instead.

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!

Controlling Weight at Lawn Bowls When You Take a Stare Point at 5 or more Meters

 

For a decade I worked with a stare point on my aim line 3 to 5 meters out from the front edge of the mat. This blog article is directed towards players who do this. If you take your stare point as the theoretical shoulder on the visualized path of your bowl, then this blog is not for you!

Using a stare point between 3 and 5 meters out along your aim line has the very significant advantage that you will know definitively after your bowl has been delivered whether you missed rolling the bowl over your stare point or whether it is your aim line that is wrong.

The disadvantage of the method is that you will have no instantaneous visual clue to help you get your weight correct. That will be entirely up to your recollection of the entire visualized path from a few moments before.

About 10 years ago I was in a roll-up at Broadbeach Bowls Club in Queensland Australia and a skip visiting from Melbourne gave me a tip about controlling weight when you use a stare point near the mat. He told me that if I was trying to deliver a bowl to a short jack my stare point should be no more than 3 meters out along my aim line, but if I wanted greater length I should be choosing a stare point 5 or 7 meters out.

At the time I tried following this advice and I remember my weight control did improve but I paid attention to it less and less thereafter, mainly because it didn’t make sense; why should it work?

Recently, during a practice session, a possible reason dawned on me.

If you are delivering a bowl to a short jack at 21-23 meters and you apply enough weight to get your bowl to travel along the aim line and over a stare point at 5 or more meters the bowl will be delivered too heavy. To roll straight along your aim line and over your stare point you have forced yourself to use too much weight. Instead, with a stare point only 3 meters away, you can bowl along your aim line, over your stare point, and still only apply the correct weight needed to reach the shorter jack.

In the alternative, if you are trying to roll your bowl straight along the aim line and over your stare point 5-7 meters out, that forces you to apply more weight and forces you not to be short!

Pertinent Definitions

An ‘aim line’ is the imaginary straight line that runs from the intersection of the rink’s center line and the front edge of the mat to a selected point on the front bank of the green. The bowler selects an aim line.

A ‘stare point’ is an imagined spot on an aim line over which the bowler tries to roll a bowl.