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. 

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. 

The Lead Bowler in Triples

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 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 has an overwhelmingly greater chance of being moved backward rather than forward 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 up-shots. Even if both of the opposition lead’s bowls are 1^st and 2^nd shot, your side’s situation is not too bad so long as your lead bowls are behind the jack!  

Lawn Bowling Triples: Maximizing Individual Skills by Having your 2nd Best Player Lead!

 

According to Law 40.1.10 of the Laws of the Sport of Bowls Fourth Edition, Skips can, at any time, delegate their own powers and any of their own duties (except those described in law 40.1.7 which all pertain to the scorecard) to any other members of the team as long as they tell the opposing skip immediately. 

In spite of this, I have seen without exception that skips place their least skilled bowler as the one who delivers the jack and the first bowls for their side. 

Why do they do this? The answer: because they believe, incorrectly, that if they put this less skilled bowler to deliver bowls in the second position, that person will be required to measure, count shots, and direct the head when the skip goes to the mat. 

But as Rule 40.1.10 paraphrased above acknowledges a skip is completely entitled to have his/her best teammate center the mat, deliver the jack, bowl first for the team, supervise the head when the skip goes to the mat, do the measuring, and report the score to the skip. The skip can then have his/her weakest bowler, bowl in the second position, and do the raking! All the normal lead and vice duties can be switched! All that is mandated is that such a skip must inform the opposing skip immediately.

There is an efficiency in doing this. Usually, as the two most experienced players on the team, they can communicate more deftly with signals to move the mat forward and backward and then get the mat aligned on the center line more quickly.

Then come the strategic benefits. The skip’s best teammate now gets the opportunity to deliver the jack to the length the skip indicates. Not only does this make more precise jack lengths more likely, but it also reduces the times the jack is too short, out of bounds, or in the forward ditch.

Advantages arise in the play as well. Because your best teammate is leading the way against what is usually the other side’s weakest bowler, your team is more often holding shot after the first six bowls have been delivered. Your best teammate has had unobstructed or minimally obstructed draw shots toward the jack. Your side has a reduced risk of playing those too-short-blocking bowls.

But now your weakest player must deliver alternating bowls with the other side’s vice. Well, if short bowls come now they may be blocking a head where your side is already more likely shot. Or maybe all your side needs is protection behind the jack. These are lower-skill assignments. Get the weight right and don’t be narrow.

This strategy has worked very well for me in inter-club competitions and above. Your teammates need to understand the reasons for the change.  It needs to be clear to your number two that the change augments both his/her responsibility and authority. The person who now delivers the 4-6th bowls for your side normally will immediately feel greater responsibility has been assigned to him/her even though the nonplaying duty is still raking.

I do not recommend this change for social games or other club roll-ups. The newer players who so often play lead need some opportunities to learn mat placement and jack delivery. Besides in open draws the person playing skip does not know the other team members so well. 

The Lead’s Bowls: the Second Bowl of an End at Lawn Bowls

When the opposition have the mat, they deliver the jack and the first bowl of the end. This is not the time to be chatting, getting a drink or finding your own bowls. You should be standing behind your opposite lead watching the line taken and the result achieved. You should use this information to improve the outcome for your first bowl of the end.

Leads are required to follow the instructions of their Skips and these instructions are provided by hand and body signals they send once the previous bowler has completed a delivery. What is written here is only to acquaint you with some of the considerations a skip may be having when deciding what instructions to send.

Opposing Lead’s Bowl >2 meters from the Jack

An opposing bowl that finishes more than 2 metres from the jack should not be a consideration when deciding your own first delivery. Knowing the aim line that was taken by that bowl is very much a consideration. It can be a guide or a warning depending on how that bowl finished.

Opposing Lead’s Bowl is Close  but Behind the Jack

You might think that an opposing first bowl that finishes just to the side of the jack and around a bowl length behind it would make your life more difficult but in fact it presents an opportunity. If you can follow that bowl down the rink and come to rest touching that bowl (resting the bowl) you will be shot bowl. If by chance you strike that bowl with a bit more velocity you will roll it back and take its place! (chop and lie). In both cases the opposition bowl makes it more likely that you will have a happy result.

Opposing Lead’s Bowl is Behind the Jack but not Very Close

The Opposing Lead has just delivered a back bowl. Your skip will want your first bowl to finish closer to the jack and preferably behind the jack. Your skip is likely to let you choose the hand you prefer. If you have no strong personal preference choose the hand your opposite lead played, you will have a better estimate of the correct aim line.

Opposing Lead’s Bowl is Jack High but about a Mat length Wide of the Jack.

When a bowl is jack high the term means that the front edge of that bowl and the front edge of the jack are the same distance down the rink. Another term is they are jack level.

This is a favourable situation for your side. This bowl does not block your delivery path and is not so close to the jack as to be an eventual serious competition for shot bowl. Rather it confers a small advantage to your side. 

If you deliver your bowl on the same hand with enough weight to reach to or behind the jack but your bowl runs a little wide you can get a wick off this opposing bowl that will push your bowl in towards the jack and push the opposing bowl away.

Your skip is likely to call for you to bowl to the jack on the same hand where the opposing jack high bowl is sitting.

Jack or Bowl Situation

Suppose the opposing lead delivers a jack high bowl that is so close to the jack that another bowl would be impossible or almost impossible to squeeze between them without any contact. This is called the jack or bowl situation. Your skip might call for you to bowl to a specific spot on the other side of the rink from the close opposing bowl because that is where the jack is very likely to be by the completion of the end.

In Your Line but >1 metre in Front of the Mat

Unfortunately your skip will decide whether that bowl is in your draw line. I say unfortunate because often you will have a better idea of whether your delivery is blocked than the skip. For the sake of the overall team cohesion please follow the skip’s decision in this situation; even though your judgment may be the better one. When the skip asks you to change the hand it is for fear that your bowl will be stopped far in front of the head. The open hand will give you a clear path to the jack!

In Your Line but Quite Close in Front of the Jack

Ironically, when your opposite’s lead bowl is unambiguously in your line, your skip may not switch you to the other hand. The reason is that even if you hit that blocking bowl squarely your bowl will finish a very good second and if your bowl just glances off that opposing bowl and rolls on a tad further it my be you who has shot bowl!

Beating the Last Bowl at Lawn Bowling

 

To win at bowls one does not need to play superbly. All one needs to do is play better than the opposition. If every time you deliver a bowl it finishes closer to the jack than the opposition bowl that preceded it, your side will be heavily favored to win that match (you can still lose to an opponent’s last bowl).

“That is obvious,” you may say, “but how is that approach superior to the standard idea of just consistently drawing well and protecting against unexpected jack movements?”

The standard approach assumes a perfectly flat green. When this is the case, mat position and jack length don’t change the delivery angle. You learn the proper bias from a few of your own prior bowls. You don’t need to be concerned to watch your opponent’s deliveries. You have all the knowledge you will need to deliver your own bowls. You often see this illustrated by professional bowlers playing indoors on a near-perfect carpet. They wander off between bowls and pay little attention to what their opposition is doing.

Outdoors, and particularly if the rink is imperfect, I find that standing immediately behind my opponent and watching precisely the line being taken gives some surprising insights into the variability in line that arises when the mat is moved and the jack length is changed. Having seen precisely the line taken by that preceding bowl and seeing where it ended up provides me with the best information for how to beat that last bowl to finish closer to my target.