Choosing your Lawn Bowls to Match the Conditions

This blog is not for novice lawn bowlers with five or fewer years’ experience because a novice typically has one set of bowls, chosen based both on his/her physique and the green most frequently played on. My first set of lawn bowls was black, size 4H, Taylor Vector VS. I expected to play lead on an outdoor, sand-packed, synthetic surface running about 16 seconds. With those bowls on that surface, my aim point was the number on the adjacent rink.

In my second year, when I started playing in tournaments on natural grass in Canada, I had no other bowls. Canadian greens are mostly under 10 seconds and I was aiming at the boundary marker or narrower on such rinks. Since I was always leading, facing short bowls in my way was not a significant problem.

In my third year I bought a new set of red, Size 3, Vector VS. My feeling was that the smaller size would improve my grip on heavier shots that required more backswing. My wife found these bowls to her liking and co-opted them! When I tried using them in tournaments at the home club I was charged with taking my wife’s bowls.

In my fourth year, I was given an old set of wide drawing bowls that were being discarded by James Gardens LBC. These ran so wide on that fast synthetic surface that no-one would use them. I took them to Willowdale LBC where, on natural grass, they behaved like Taylor Lignoids. The aim point on this grass was 25% wider than my Vectors. They had a definite hook at the end that could get past short bowls in front of the jack.

Based on her physique, the coach at Willowdale LBC recommended that my wife, Tish,  use a Size 1 bowl. We ordered a set of Taylor Aces. Because the color was being discontinued we got a good discount on a set in solid lemon yellow (that later developed cracks ). Tish tried using them both on the artificial carpet and then on grass but she never liked them. She preferred the red Vectors. These yellow Aces sat around gathering dust until this year when I tried them for playing skip in social games on the fast synthetic carpet. They felt so comfortable in my hand that I kept using them on and off.

According to the on-line literature, narrow bowls give problems first and foremost under windy conditions on hard, fast greens. This is not difficult to believe. Narrow bowls have an unstable line if they wobble because the running surface is engineered so the bowl draws differently when it is totally upright than it does as it slows down and begins to lean over. If the wind changes the tilt of the bowl, the drawing characteristics will change.  For the same reason, narrow bowls are less forgiving of the wobble often observed in the delivery of beginner bowlers. As a consequence I think beginning bowlers should not use narrow bowls. Fortunately, the old bowls that clubs lend out to beginning bowlers are mostly of the classic more stable profile. The take-away for more seasoned bowlers: do not use narrow bowls on fast greens under windy conditions! 

The More Forgiving Hand in Lawn Bowling

It is pretty well understood that one side of a rink is often more forgiving of line errors than the other. In contrast, there is an incorrect belief that the narrow hand is invariably the more forgiving hand. As well, few understand that whether a hand is forgiving or not depends in a complicated way upon the bias of your bowl, the contour of the green, and the position of both mat and jack, not whether the  hand is wide or narrow.

The most common example of a situation comprising a difficult hand arises when a visually imperceptible ridge runs down one side of the rink. If your line runs on one side of this ridge the bowl is held out, while on the other side the bowl swerves down like a surfer coming off a big wave, and runs across the center line. This kind of inhomogeneity sometimes can be counteracted by repositioning your feet (‘using the mat’) moving from a more central position to one side or the other, so that your bowls display consistently one behaviour or the other. The new more generous foot-fault rule in the new World Bowls rules (Crystal Mark 3) makes the mat effectively wider and so more useful in this regard.

In contrast, a very forgiving hand arises when, for example a visually imperceptible, shallow, concave dip (like a broad shallow gutter) runs down one side of the rink. If your bowl’s path is too wide, the valley wall draws it back; if your line is too narrow the opposite valley wall pulls it out. This helpful ‘dip’ may be found with equal likelihood on either the nominally narrow or wide hands. 

As noted, these concave or convex contours cannot be seen. They deviate from flat by so little that they are imperceptible. Yet they are sufficient to measurably deflect a bowl. They cannot be detected by rolling a single bowl.

There are clues however. Missing an established stare point and still ending up close to the target is a sign of a forgiving hand. Conversely when two of your bowls are delivered with much the same weight and both roll over your stare point, but end up far apart; this is a sign of an unforgiving hand.

The situation of an unforgiving hand can be confused with the case where one bowl delivery is deflected in course by some object in the grass. To distinguish between these two situations, every bowl needs to be watched closely throughout its travel. If there is a sudden jump or slip in a bowl's smooth curve, this suggests a hole in or a discrete object on the green.    

Competing at Lawn Bowls: playing as if on two Rinks in the same Match

In a bowls match, what remains the same for ends 1,3,5,7 etc.? How about ends 2,4,6,8 etc.? What is different between the two sets of ends? The difference is pretty well everything.  When the jack is delivered in the opposite direction on a rink, it’s as if you were playing on a different rink, on a different day; almost everything is different. Yet we so often act as if little has changed.

The fact is that almost everything you learn in the first end will only be useful when applied in the other ends that are bowled in the same direction. Similarly, what is learned in end two really can only be useful in other even-numbered ends? So a bowling match is really two matches woven together. The rule linking them strategically is that the winner in any end except the first gets to position the mat and roll the jack to a preferred length in the next end.

Consequently, if you can find a mat position and jack length that more consistently wins the odd ends, you will be provided many opportunities to investigate mat positions and jack lengths that may allow you to win in even numbered ends, and vice versa. Conversely, if you can’t win more of the odd numbered ends, you will get few chances to look for mat and jack positions that might favor you in even-numbered ends and vice-versa. 

Lawn Bowling Strategy and Tactics for Playing on End Rinks

Since the Vilamoura LBC here in Portugal shut down, the number of bowlers at the roll ups at  the  Valverde club in nearby Almancil has ballooned. All eight rinks are in use regularly. As a consequence, many more people end up playing on end rinks, where one boundary is only a few feet away from the side ditch. I was challenged by one of these rinks this week.

Although my team won the match, we lost two big ends where the opposition scored first five and then three shots. Analysis, after the match, suggested that these ends had something in common. In each instance, the opposition had the mat and  had  rolled a first bowl that blocked the draw from the more playable side, away from this ditch. In each of these ends I had changed  hands and attempted  deliveries that ran close to the ditch. None of these bowls ended within a meter of the jack. What had started out badly finished badly for my team.

The lesson seems to be that I should  have remained on the more playable hand; shifted my foot position on the mat, if I thought it would help, and tried to bowl around the apparent blocker. Even if my delivery were to collide with this troublesome bowl most likely the  impact would clear a path for subsequent bowls both mine and those of the rest of my team.

Thank Goodness for Valverde LBC; Different Practice Ends

Tish at Valverde LBC

Having just arrived in Vilamoura Portugal motivated by the opportunity to play lawn bowls, my wife and I learned on the second day that Vilamoura LBC is closed! The closure occurred in the middle of last October but knowing earlier would not have helped us; we had paid for our accommodation and plane tickets already.

The next closest club, Valverde LBC in Almencil, has had a sudden spike in membership bringing it past 100 members, who must all bowl on just eight rinks. This is not as bad as it might seem, because some of the membership only come in the summer months. Fortunately, because we also played at Valverde last year and since Tish has been in regular communication with their executive all during the year, we had been put on the list as regular members and so could count on a place to play. So far, in our first full week, Tish and I have bowled three times and although all the rinks were used we were still all playing the customary triples. We could accommodate sixteen more people if we went to playing fours but there does not seem to be any tradition of fours here. Similarly, I have never seen an in-club game of fours in Canada. In contrast, when the men play at Turramurra LBC in Sydney Australia it is not uncommon for more than half the rinks to be fours. 

A Warm-up Different from Practice Ends

 At Valverde, they play the first and second ends of a match with a maximum score of one for each of these two ends. This substitutes for practice ends and allows a player to scout out the 'lay of the land' going in each direction on the rink. Playing triples,this allows you to play, in each of the directions, two bowls on one hand and one bowl on the other without excessive consequences. It is important to take advantage of this opportunity. One should not struggle so hard to win these opening points that you fail to test the draw lines you are going to need throughout the match.

Bowls Tactics borrowing from Lachlan Tighe

Head analysis does not consider either the skill level or the confidence of the person who is being asked to make the shot(s). Neither the score nor the ends to play is usually considered in these hypothetical situations. The bias of bowls and the speed of the green are left out. Consequently there will always be disagreement over what should be played.

Readers should be inspired to share their own thinking in the Comments.

Four different head positions are analyzed assuming that the front ditch is, in turn, in the North(N), South (S), West (W)and East(E) of the diagram. The different orientations create four different tactical situations. The Skips are designated as White and Cross. Their bowls are respectively empty orange circles and purple circles with a cross on them. The small solid orange circle is the jack. The jack is on the center line two meters from the ditch. None of White’s bowls are touchers. White holds three shots. Each side has a bowl remaining but Cross has the last shot. 

North

The ditch is a meter behind the Cross bowls. Taken in this direction this is a problem set by Lachlan Tighe  who describes 15 different options for White. The positioning is deceptive. There are few locations the jack can realistically move short of the line formed by the three Cross bowls where Cross can score even two. The danger arises if the jack is taken anywhere past these bowls up to and including the ditch. A drive or running shot that touches the jack can then score three or four. The best defense is a bowl by White from the left with the primary objective to move White’s leftmost bowl back at least into the line and splitting the Cross bowls. If the shot is missed on the left the bowl could end up grouped with the two Cross bowls on the left which provides some cover.  Follow the link to see all the possibilities without any recommended choice.

 South

White can expect cross to drive into the pocket of White’s two rightmost bowls and the jack white should draw into a location in front of the jack and in the line of Cross’s bowls. Ideally this bowl will count but if it is a bit short that won’t matter.

West

Cross will have to execute a long trail to get more than two. Draw from the left. Since you are up three,  if you err be a touch wide. White will be happy to end up in Cross’s draw. Let Cross be the one to push up his own short bowl on the right, don’t risk doing it for him

East

White should try to rest Cross’s backmost bowl, delivering from the left. White should not draw behind the jack from the right. You do not want to provide a shoulder which could give Cross a wick in with his last bowl or even a bowl on which Cross can chop and lie from the right for second shot. Cross could be down four when he comes to the mat.

Leading at Bowls: How I yearn to deliver the Jack

You know what I would like to do? I’d like to play lead for a good pairs, triples, or fours team. I thought, when I started lawn bowling, that I would be a lead for five or six years! I looked forward to it. But it hardly ever happened. In every club I’ve ever  played at in Canada, players are pushed up the tagboard, to second, then vice, then skip, based on relative skill, not competence; because you know the rules; because you know how to measure; because you know how to fill out a scorecard; because you’ve been around a long time. You must go up because new members are joining and we must make room for them at the bottom- as leads.

I will soon go to Portugal to play while winter occupies Canada. Out of politeness, I tell them there I can play in any position- whatever works for the drawmaster. “Would you be a skip?” they ask. Once I answer yes to that, I’m most often a skip and never again a lead.

Now Australia is different. At Turramurra (North Sydney) there are enough excellent players to provide ‘real’ skips for every rink, even at the lower pennant levels where the selector properly placed me. A ‘real’ skip is someone who cares where the mat is set and cares how long the jack is delivered. Still, there are enough poorer players, even in Australia, that I am a second for a fours team. Even here leading eludes me.

After five years lawn bowling I have never seen any other person practicing delivering jacks. It’s as if it didn’t matter.  

Christmas Bowl's Head Analyses

Head analysis does not consider either the skill level or the confidence of the person who is being asked to make the shot(s). Neither the score nor the ends to play is usually considered in these hypothetical situations. The bias of bowls and the speed of the green are left out. Consequently, there will always be disagreement over what should be played.

Readers should be inspired to share their own thinking in the Comments.

Four different head positions are analyzed assuming that the front ditch is, in turn, in the North (N), South (S), West (W) and East(E) of diagram A. The different orientations create four different tactical situations. The Skips are designated as White and Cross. Their bowls are respectively empty orange circles and purple circles with a cross on them. The small solid orange circle is the jack.

 A North

White alone has a single bowl to play and sits two with four thirds against.  A useful rule is: when you are up don’t be narrow. That is: don’t run through the head and change anything when are already winning the end. White can draw from either the left or the right. If White must score three he should draw from the right with the object to chop and lie on Cross’s bowl at three o’clock. Resting on White’s short counter at 6 o’clock or trailing the jack will also score three. There is a low probability downside of promoting Cross’s 3^rd at 3 o’clock.

If White can be happy with 2 while retaining some chance for 3 the draw on the left side is preferred.

A South

White has a single bowl to play and sits two with four thirds against.  The situation is not changed from AN. Here draw from the left if you must have three. Otherwise, draw from the right.

A West

In this head, Cross has a short bowl in front of the jack. Unless it is the final end and White must score three, refuse your last bowl and take a sure two.  If going for three draw from the left aiming to rest on your counter at 9 o’clock. Hitting Cross’s bowl at 10 o’clock may still give the score you need.

A East

In this head the bowls are strung out from side to side at approximate jack length. White has a single bowl to play and sits two with four thirds against.  Draw from the right. White’s bowl at 3 o’clock will partly shield the jack. Resting on this bowl or wicking off Cross’s bowl at 4 o’clock all score three. Drawing from the left has more risk to move the jack back to Cross’s backest bowl.