Do Lawn Bowling Skips Really Think Far Ahead?

 

Commentators on professional lawn bowling videos often say that top bowlers think several bowls ahead in each end. Is this actually likely? Or, does it depend upon the tactical situation in the head? 

Remember— the situation in the head depends as much upon the location of the opposition bowls as upon the planned disposition of your own side’s bowls.

What I can believe is that certain dispositions of bowls- comprising both one's own and those of the opponents- can present such a substantial combination of positive outcomes that a skip can expect that shot to be eventually attempted either by the opposition or his own team. When such a position arises, this realization can cause him/her to prepare the head to increase or decrease its likelihood, depending upon whether successful execution would be beneficial or detrimental to the side.

What I am suggesting is that it is particular dispositions of bowls that trigger planning further ahead, while m the situation suggests nothing more than that the next bowl should be delivered as close as possible to the jack! 

A skip is unlikely to start formulating a comprehensive strategy for an end so long as (s)he is confident at outdrawing whatever has been delivered so far in the end. It is really only when a bowl is sufficiently close to the jack that it is unlikely to be bettered that both offensive or defensive longer-term strategizing is triggered. 

The Ten Top Greenbowler Lawn Bowling Blogs

Ryan Bester at Broadbeach

 

I've been posting The Greenbowler Blog for seven years. Although, as the editor, I can see which of my 228 posts have been more popular this information is not readily available to readers although posts can be selected by keywords using the search tool in the right-hand column of each blog article. So below, I list, each with its own link, my 10 most popular blog articles of all time. If this proves useful and there is a demand for it, I will supply links for numbers 11-20 later.

1. The Secret to Controlled Weight

2. Strategy and Tactics at Bowls

3. Lawn Bowling from the Shooters Stance

4. Measuring at Bowls

5. Jack or Bowl: Reading the Head

6. Strategy of Leads at Pairs

7. Controlled Weight

8. Choosing your Correct Bias for Bowls

9. Delivering Bowls with a Cocked Wrist

10. Henselite Supergrip Championship Bowls

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: Greg Harlow Drives

In the picture above you see Greg Harlow inspecting the head before delivering his last (green) bowl. It is not clear what the score will be when the end is completed. He is down one in the head but could be down as many as three. On the indoor carpet with his wide-bias bowls, Greg’s last bowl will enter the head at an angle of perhaps 60 degrees from the vertical. Drawing on his backhand can reduce the loss to one if he draws close enough or if he wicks off his closest short bowl; however, the unusual disposition of three bowls out in front of the jack presents a third option. He could drive hard at the shortest of his green bowls. Four different bowls can be anticipated being pushed through the head. Three of these bowls are green. Greg has the ‘backest’ bowl and it looks like it will stay protected. There is a very good chance that the jack will move back and even go out of bounds for re-spotting.

In fact, Harlow, who has a very accurate forehand drive, does move the jack.

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The Enemy Cluster and the Need for Cover

Sometimes when you are ‘up’ in a head, the greatest tactical danger is a cluster of enemy bowls somewhere behind the jack.  The level of danger is usually proportional to the largest area contained within a polygon formed by joining the bowl positions by imaginary straight lines. For example, three bowls close together can be visualized being in a triangle; four enemy bowls close together can be visualized as being either in the quadrilateral or the largest triangle that can be made from the positions of any three of the bowls.

Even a grouping of two opposition bowls behind the jack can represent an incipient cluster because if the other side trails the jack back towards these bowls, the delivered bowl can often become part of the cluster.

The danger is that the jack may be moved to a location where all these opposing bowls will become counters.  The resolution of this danger is for your side to deliver a bowl into this polygon shaped area.  

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The Motif of the ‘Firm Wood Target’

 The motif called ‘firm wood target’ is a configuration of two bowls that sit about one bowl width apart, side by side, short of the jack. Preferably these two bowls sit centered in front of the jack. These two bowls can be any combination of your own and opposition bowls. The essential characteristic of this configuration is that the gap between these bowls is such that it is highly unlikely or impossible for you to deliver a bowl that passes between them without touching one or the other of them.

Such a configuration promises a wide target with several promising outcomes when a bowl is delivered at them with a few meters of weight.

If both bowls in the pair are opposition bowls your shot should be delivered with more weight. The objective is to remove both bowls and have your own bowl trickle on a bit to end up near the jack.

 When one of the pair is an opposing bowl and the other is your own, favorable outcomes arise when you achieve the same double takeout as described above as well as when you move your own bowl into the shot position. Because you also might promote the opposition bowl it is required that this opposing bowl be already a counter.

When both bowls in the pair are your own any hit on the pair with sufficient weight to move one or both will be favorable for you. It is the most preferred situation.

The slower the green the more likely a successful outcome becomes from this shot. The slower the green the firmer and straighter this shot needs to be delivered.

The 'Plant' Motif in Head Reading at Lawn Bowls

In a lawn bowling head, two bowls touching each other are what is called a 'plant' situation. Contact with the shorter bowl will send the second bowl away precisely along the line connecting the centers of the two bowls. This is the tactical advantage: that even if the closer bowl is not hit flush, the further bowl will move in an exactly predictable direction.  A plant can involve more than two bowls so long as each bowl touches the next. As before, the main bowl that moves is the bowl furthest from the mat and it moves dependably along the line joining the centers of it and the bowl it is in contact with in the 'plant' arrangement.

A skip analyzing a head should be on the lookout for a 'plant'. The two bowls can be both yours, both opponent’s, or one yours and one the opponent’s. In each case, the potential is the same. A hit on the shorter bowl will cause the further bowl to move predictably by recoil action. The distance it will move is determined by the vigor with which the pair is impacted. The shorter bowl that is hit may not move much at all if hit squarely.

The distance the further bowl moves is affected by both the angle and the velocity with which the closer bowl is impacted but if that distance is not critical then the chance of success is higher.

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls Using Motifs

The labelled boxes enclosed by the dashed lines are the motifs

Here is a lawn bowls head to illustrate the motif method of analysis. The mat is situated at the bottom of the diagram. The bowls with crosses belong to the opposition. The plain bowls are yours. Your skip has the last bowl left to play. The little yellow circle is, of course, the jack. You are down one in the head.

The motif analysis is illustrated in the diagram above.

A.   A jack high wing bowl can sometimes improve probable outcomes of a draw from the same side; however, in this case it is disfavored because of the risk that you might touch the standing bowl in Motif C. Even a slight touch on the opposition’s C bowl will roll it closer to the jack. Of course this will not put you further down. It is already shot bowl.

B.   A double takeout motif often presents a pocket for an overweight draw that can push two bowls and allow the delivered bowl to slide through to the jack. The difficulty here is that one of this pair is a standing bowl that will roll closer to the jack rather than being knocked out!

C.   A standing bowl is the opposing shot bowl. As already discussed any touch on it, directly or indirectly, will not take it away from the jack but closer.

D.   Another double takeout possibility. The risk of removing your own second shot to put your side down a multiple rules out a heavier shot of this kind.

E.  Your side has the backest bowl. Any backward movement of the jack can favor your side.

F.   This is the plant motif. Here, it is very favorable for the white side. If the crossed bowl in F is hit either directly or indirectly, your side’s bowl touching it will be propelled towards the jack. If it moves just a bit it will become shot. If it moves more and moves the jack back in the space between your 'backest bowl' (E) and your wing bowl (A), you will gain a multiple. A draw aiming to run through the crossed bowl in Motif F with a couple of feet of weight is the highest percentage shot. If you hit the crossed bowl in F, no matter what weight, your own bowl in the motif will move towards the jack. If your delivery is a bit narrow you can still rattle through between the opposing bowls on this right side of the green while still jolting your bowl in the F motif. If you are a bit wide you may end up with a rest on your 'backest bowl' (E), again making shot. If you are wide and a tad short you could just draw shot!

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The 'Standing Bowl' Motif

 

The bowl at the left is a 'Standing Bowl'

A ‘standing bowl’ is a lawn bowl that continues to stay upright on its running surface after it has come to rest. A standing bowl is significant because it can be much more easily moved further along its path if struck by a later bowl. A much harder hit is required to roll over a bowl that has already fallen over. For example, it is much easier to promote a short 'standing bowl' than the kind that have fallen down at the end of its travel. Consequently, such a bowl, which is superficially quite short, can be promoted to being a shot bowl.

 Also, according to Mr. Tupper who writes an interesting lawn bowls blog, “A ‘standing bowl’ which is in contact with another bowl will bounce to the jack with little or no effort and does not depend upon using the same delivery line as it was delivered. Actually, a reverse delivery wick, coming from the opposite hand to wick to the jack; will cause a double point. It and the bowl used for the wick.  Yes both will go to the jack with equal speed. (Draw about 4 feet through) for this wick raise.”

Incidentally, a disproportionately large number of standing bowls is a sign of a slow green. A bowl is held up by longer grass blades because the bowl sinks into the carpet. A fast green is more like a bare surface with no protruding grass blades to support an upright bowl.

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The Jack-High Wing Bowl Motif

I am proposing the term 'motif' to identify any common, significant feature in a lawn bowl head. Identifying the motifs found in any lawn bowl head along with an understanding of their significance for the selection of your tactics for that head will be my approach to lawn bowling head analysis.

 Before I can analyze a head in this way, I must identify all the useful motifs. Other motifs can be found by searching 'motifs' with the search tool at the top of this blog.

A common motif is the ‘jack-high wing bowl motif.’ This consists of the jack and an opposition bowl, approximately jack-high, separated from it by 2-3 feet. This motif's presence in a head should suggest as one possibility a potential draw shot, targeting the jack, delivered from the same side as the jack-high bowl. The chance for a successful outcome in this configuration is more than for a draw to a bare jack because the delivered bowl will sometimes wick off the inside of the prepositioned jack-high bowl and end up rolling closer to the jack. Because in this circumstance an overly heavy delivery may be buffered and corrected by its encounter with the jack-high bowl, the demands on the delivery are more forgiving and a favorable outcome is more likely. Any excess weight may fortuitously be expended pushing the original jack-high bowl further from the jack.

Of course, the positions of other bowls in the head may increase or decrease the likelihood of success using this motif. Any head may exhibit quite a few different motifs, and each may adumbrate a different shot. The skip’s job is to choose the best option from among those suggested.  

Head Reading at lawn Bowls: ‘Chop/Tap and Lie’ Motif

A motif is defined as a main element, idea, feature, etc. The main cultural areas where the word is used are art, literature, and music. I am going to extend the term to identify any common, significant feature in a lawn bowls head. Enumerating the motifs displayed in any lawn bowls head along with an understanding of their significance for the selection of your tactics for that head will be my approach to lawn bowls head analysis.

Below, I identify what I call the ‘Chop/Tap and Lie’ Motif. For other bowling motifs, search the word motif in this blog’s search tool.

A head position may comprise the ‘shot or bowl’ motif but be further complicated by having the jack ‘covered’ by another bowl in front of it. That is to say, the full target cross-section is not available because the jack is obscured by another shorter bowl.  In this situation, another possibility may be the ‘chop and lie’ or ‘tap and lie’ tactic. This delivery is less promising than the ‘shot or bowl’ precisely because it is a one-bowl target. Nevertheless, it may be the only option available when the head is obstructed.

A necessary precondition must be that, so long as your bowl succeeds in coming to rest on the target bowl, it will be the closest one to the jack. This usually means that the target bowl must be behind the jack.

Head Reading at Bowls: The Re-Spot Position Motif

Usually, the more counting bowls your side has in the head, the wider the target that these bowls will make. Also, the shorter the distance between the jack and the mat the more likely your opposition is to attack the head with weight. More weight increases the likelihood that the jack will be driven out of bounds. In the 'old' tradition, such dead ends were called 'burnt' and were completely replayed but increasingly today the end continues with the jack placed in a predesignated re-spot position.  The most common re-spot position for club play is located on the center line two meters from the front ditch. 
When the head position  strongly suggests that your  opponent may drive and succeed in breaking up the head, you have two main choices:

(1) try to position a short blocking bowl or 
(2) deliver the 'backest bowl' closest to both the re-spot position and the forward ditch. 

If your side is sitting with more than two shot bowls, the blocker is the best choice if you must save them all these shots. Otherwise, drawing a catcher bowl that covers the re-spot position is easier and more likely to affect the outcome. This latter tactic has the added advantage that you are unlikely to accidentally disrupt the head yourself.

Thinking about covering should be triggered whenever your side has two close shot bowls. 

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The Entry Port Motif

An entry port on the right-hand side leading to the yellow jack: the rink runs from lower left to upper right

The chances for a successful draw to the jack are improved when the port configuration of bowls is present. A port is a funnel-shaped passage, ideally, that leads towards the jack at the same angle as the normal angle of draw of your bowl. The funnel shape is marked at two or more places by bowls so that if the delivery is either wide or narrow but a touch heavy it will be deflected back and funneled in the direction of the jack.

Ports are not visible from the mat. They need to be identified by the team member directing the head. Because it is the bowler who knows the bias of his own bowls best, the bowler often needs to be called to the head to confirm the wisdom of what is being proposed.

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The ‘Jack or Bowl’ Motif

The Motif Approach to Head Reading

To a pedantic person, a lawn bowl's head is an area encompassing all the bowls in play and the jack. Pragmatically, the head comprises all the bowls in play likely to be or become significant, the jack, and the rink area around them. To illustrate the difference: when your skip tells you to stay back of the head, he or she doesn't mean you need to be on the bank just because there are a few bowls, four meters behind the jack (though you should not stand in a way that would obscure them).

 A motif is defined as a main element, idea, feature, etc. The main cultural areas where the word is used are art, literature, and music. I am going to extend the term to identify any common, significant feature in a lawn bowl head. Enumerating the motifs displayed in any lawn bowling head along with an understanding of their significance for the selection of your tactics for that head will be my approach to lawn bowling head analysis.

 Before I can analyze a head in this way, I must identify each of the common motifs. I will start, in this blog, with the ‘jack or bowl’ motif and continue the examination in later blogs.

’Jack or Bowl’ Motif

I will define an approximately jack-high opposing bowl that is sitting shot, with 5.5 inches or less distance between it and the jack as the ’jack or bowl’ motif.

For us ordinary mortals, this arrangement of the jack and one bowl lying shot is unlikely to be defeated with draw bowls. However, because the distance between the jack and bowl is small enough that it is also unlikely that you can roll a bowl between them without disturbing one or both, an on-shot delivered at this target has a heightened chance to move either the jack, the opposing bowl, or both, because this target is substantially wider in cross-section than a jack or bowl sitting isolated.  Therefore aiming to hit this cluster has an improved chance for success.

The closer this space between the jack-high bowl and the jack is to the actual width of your own bowl when it is on its running surface, the sooner the attack should be considered because your opponents will realize that this setup presents a big opportunity for your side to get rid of their shot bowl and will try to alter the situation by placing receiving bowls at the back, blocking your planned on-shot, or tickling the jack into a more secure location. Nevertheless, in a pairs, triples, or fours game, hitting the jack or bowl motif is best left to the team player most experienced with run-through shots.  The most likely strategy of the side owning the shot bowl is to get other bowls behind the jack in a catching position or to cover any re-spot position(s).

When it is the opposing lead that creates the ‘shot or bowl’ situation, a good strategy is to direct your own lead to get one of his/her bowls into the head so that it widens the target. What is anathema in the situation is for your lead to be short blocking your subsequent drive or on-shot. If your lead has two bowls remaining when the ‘jack or bowl’ situation arises, first ask for a bowl 1-2 meters behind the jack and then ask for the next bowl jack-high to widen the target. The first bowl will help provide a better sense of the correct weight; the second will make use of this knowledge to set up the target for destruction.