Your Skip May Want to Accept a Jack that is Actually Too Short

When an opponent throws a jack that appears not to have travelled the requisite distance from the front mat line (21 meters in Australia and Canada), your skip might not raise an objection. Similarly, you as lead may deliver a jack that is actually too short and the opponents may say nothing. A short jack may be what your skip wants.  When the opposing skip raises no objection that jack, after being centered, will be played to. Neither you as a lead nor any other team member, should say anything. If asked by your skip how far the mat is from the rear ditch, you should give a good estimate but make no comment about jack length. According to the World Laws of Bowls, Third Edition, once the first bowl has been rolled the jack length cannot be disputed.

As part of good team communication it would be good to quietly draw a teammate’s attention to the shortness of the jack before he or she rolls your side’s first bowl. In a singles match, it is the marker who is responsible for making sure the jack length is at least the minimum length.

Ignorance of this Law of Bowls can cost you the Match

Often in in-club tournaments a match outcome hinges upon control of the mat; one team does better on short ends, the other on long ones. Yet, in such in-club games, the leads may both be very new bowlers. The lead with the mat may, for example, deliver the jack too short or too wide and the other lead may then put the jack out or in the forward ditch. In this situation, the rule is that the jack is centered two meters from the forward ditch and the origin lead delivers the first bowl. What is often not remembered is that in this situation, the original lead bowler may move the mat forward to wherever his/her skip wants it to be placed before that first bowl is rolled. This is crucial because the original lead’s team may be the one needing a short jack and, if they don’t know the rule, that team will be faced with a very long one!

To quote chapter and verse, in Laws of the Sport of Bowls, Crystal Mark, Third Edition, rule 10.3 states, “If the jack is delivered improperly once by each player in any end, it must not be delivered again in that end. Instead, it must be centered with the nearest point of the jack to the mat line being two meters from the front ditch, and the mat must be placed as described in 6.1.1 by the first player to play”.
 Rule 6.1.1 in turn states, “Before the start of play in each end, the player to play first must place the center line of the mat lengthwise along the center line of the rink, with the mat line at least two meters from the rear ditch and at least 25 [23 in Canada] meters from the front ditch”.
In other words, the team that will play first regains control of the jack length because they can adjust the position of the mat before bowling the first bowl!

 

Lawn Bowling from the Shooters Stance

I am very reluctant to suggest even to novice bowlers that they change their delivery after committing one delivery to 'muscle memory' but I am going to do it. I have watched the two teaching videos below and I have tried what they recommend. I have identified what is being recommended with what I am seeing world class bowlers like Alex Marshall MBE and Paul Foster MBE execute on youtube. I have tried the method out. Already I can see a difference in favor of the shooter’s stance! I can feel the improved stability in my body at that critical moment when I step forward with my advancing foot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9cKvPeWj4&spfreload=10

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkKgJWDq1GA

There is perhaps an additional huge advantage that may be related to this change. I am left handed. I was suffering from plantar faciitis in my left foot, which is my anchor foot. I suspected that this condition was being caused or at least agravated in my case by the stress created by the unbalance that was occurring at the moment that all my weight moved onto this foot when I was pushing my weight forward into my bowling swing. This hunch seems to be supported by the unusual wear pattern on the sole of my bowling shoes. My left, the anchor shoe had a worn spot, not at the edge where it is commonly found, but right at the center of the heel! The shooter’s stance, by giving me a more stable base, seems to have relieved the condition. To be fair I placed orthodic insoles into my bowling shoes about the same time, so this wasn’t exactly one variable at a time experimentation. 

Whatever works, right!  

Using the ‘Bryant Twist’ to Deliver the Jack on a Slow Grass Lawn Bowl’s Rink

I recently finished two weeks practically living at the James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club. I kept almost regular business hours so that new bowlers would know that the club was open for their free trial, practice, and/or instruction. I took two days off during that spell so I could play in a couple of open pairs tournaments; otherwise-at the club-at the club!

During this volunteer spell, there was plenty of free time for personal practice. I discovered that if I turned my wrist in to my body on the backswing my line corrected so that I could aim directly at a mark on the front ditch rather than having to trace a line back and pick a stare point about five meters out from the mat on the green. However, after trying this in a few matches I have returned to my previous delivery completely.

Where I did find this turning the wrist inward helpful was in casting the jack. On the slow Canadian grass, I was finding it difficult to roll the jack a full length green, from T to T. To achieve this I needed a very high backswing, where the bowling arm was coming well above the horizontal position. This was only comfortable when I turned my wrist 90 degrees in to my side as it passed my  leg and then another 90 degrees as my hand reached its highest point. For comparison, on a representative Eastern Canadian green,  to deliver the jack to the hog line (21meters) I needed only a 45 degree backswing. But whatever the length, the delivery was straighter and more fluid when my wrist is twists during the swing.

When done to deliver a bowl this is called the Bryant twist. It was also part of Tony Allcock’s delivery. 

What is Your Natural Length of Jack?

Rather often the skip at lawn bowls will tell the lead bowler to send the jack to the lead’s ‘natural length’. Well, what is your ‘natural length’? How is the term defined? Your ‘natural length’ is the length to which you can most dependably, smoothly and effortlessly send a bowl. On the  outdoor synthetic green at James Gardens in Toronto, Canada, for example, my preferred length happens to be the longest jack possible: two meters from the forward ditch when the mat is set two meters from the rear ditch. By good fortune, my natural pendulum swing delivers my bowls that distance.

When on another green, however, I can only discover my natural jack length by grassing a bowl with the same step and swing that I would use at James Gardens and then measuring how far the bowl goes down this new rink. This becomes my  natural length on that rink under those weather conditions.  Sadly, on the slow grass rinks in Ontario, Canada this can be just past the hog line! Whatever it may be, your natural length needs to be determined at the place you are going to play before the start of any competition there. Even if there are no practice ends (as in Ontario Canada), this can be done by rolling a few bowls at right angles to the direction in which the tournament games are going to be played, when warming up before play begins. Grass your natural weight and measure the distance it travels from the front of the mat. Then see how much weight is needed to deliver a jack to that length. Now you are better prepared to compete. Let your skip know your preferred length. 

The Skip can help a Lead by calling for the Jack at the latter’s Natural Length

Last Saturday, playing skip in the Aiken Cup at James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club, I noticed that my lead was bowling consistently 24-25 meters even when the jack was shorter or longer than this. At the same time, he had no difficulty sending the jack as directed, right to my feet, when we had the mat. Therefore, I started calling for a 24-25 meter jack every time we got the mat. Immediately, and consistently thereafter, he peppered the head with bowls like a bowling machine. I would say that this was the most significant reason we won the tournament.
It looks like helping your lead delivery the jack (his or her) natural distance can pay big dividends. The textbook advice is that the jack length should be adjusted for the best performance of the whole team, but this is usually difficult to figure out much less execute. For lead and skip to agree to seek the lead’s natural distance is simpler. The vice and skip, as the more experienced players (usually), are better equipped to do the adapting for that weight!

The Drawmaster’s Dilemma in Social Lawn Bowls: the Swing Lead and a Proposed Alternative

The person who arranges the teams for games of social bowls at the local lawn bowling club never faces all the problems that the draw master at an open tournament encounters, but there is one problem this club volunteer faces more often, indeed, at least half the time: what to do when you have an odd number who want to play?

The answer, wherever I have gone in the world, is to have a ‘swing lead’. A swing lead delivers bowls for each team alternately. In some places, the number of bowls that the lead delivers is reduced. For example, in a game of triples a swing lead may play two bowls for each side rather than the three bowls that a regular lead would play. Half of the swing lead’s bowls are marked with tape and the other half have none. This is so, at the completion of each end, the lead bowls delivered for each side can be identified for the scoring.

Some players don’t mind being in a game where there is a swing lead; others hate it. Some would rather not play than participate in a game with a swing lead! There are certainly disadvantages. When starting a game with a swing lead the skip should always give away the mat because you want the swing lead to deliver bowls for your side after learning weight and line from the other side’s bowls. 

Looking at the situation another way, the swing lead bowler gets no thrill of competition because (s)he is not up against any opponent but is part of both teams. All the swing lead can do is practice technique. Also, the swing lead is doing the raking at every end.

I would like to propose an alternative applicable to games of triples; the most common social game.
A team of four players can compete against a regular triples team. Each team will deliver 9 bowls as in regular triples, the difference being that for the team of four, the lead will deliver two bowls, the second two bowls, the vice two bowls, and the skip the usual three bowls.  For the three-person team, each member will deliver three bowls as usual. Each team will have grassed nine bowls in each end. In this way, seven players will be engaged on one rink and each player will be part of just one team.

The drawmaster should intentionally make up the team of four with stronger players because it is a disadvantage for any team member to only play two rather than three bowls.

Playing Bowls in Honolulu: Leads as Greenskeepers’ Assistants

 On my way home to Canada, after avoiding any winter weather in Australia, my wife and I played bowls at the Honolulu Lawn Bowling Club.  This is the only lawn bowling green in Hawaii. It was built by Australian troops during the war. It fell into disrepair afterward, was rehabilitated, and is now maintained by its present membership, who total about 35 souls. The club is within walking distance of the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort where we were staying.  Apparently, many visitors come for a game from the tourist sites. There is play on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but see their website for current details. We were not the only visitors. There is a large selection of bowls to borrow and a friendly atmosphere.

As you might imagine keeping up a natural grass green with only a small group of player-volunteers is a challenge and I could see that not all the rinks were playable at one time. This reminded me of something very important for novice bowlers to remember. Novices very often are lead bowlers and they have the freedom(at least within 3 or 4 meters) to decide where to place the mat. Leads should choose the position of the mat with respect for the condition of the rink. They are the most important assistants to the greenskeeper because they can keep the heavy traffic away from areas where the grass needs time to recover. Most often this is the area two meters out from the back ditch where so many players think the mat must be placed!

Try moving the mat five meters up the rink. When the mat has been centered with the help of your skip, on the green mark the position of the front center of the mat with chalk. That way you will be putting your mat down where there is less wear and tear while still making it quick to center the mat at the same place again and get on with the next end.