What to Do About a Downpour of Rain During Lawn Bowls

Lawn bowls is a recreation and is played for pleasure. If a social roll-up is stopped suddenly by heavy rain everyone just runs for the clubhouse or scrambles to get one’s woods and heads home.

In a tournament, the same can’t happen.The Laws of the Sport of Bowls Fourth Edition set rules for what can and what cannot be done. In this blog, I will consider the best course of action for different situations so that your team will be well served while the rules are adhered to.

Downpour During but Not Close to the Finish of an End

The rules concerning Game Stoppages apply.

33.1 If a game is stopped because of darkness, weather conditions or any other valid reason by: 

• 33.1.1  the Controlling Body (or authorized person in the absence of the Controlling Body) (Greenbowler- this can be the event convener or the greenskeeper);
  
• 33.1.2  the umpire (Greenbowler- often there is no umpire) after an appeal has been made by the players; or
  
• 33.1.3  agreement between the players (Greenbowler- meaning the 2 skips since the preposition ‘between’ is used) when an umpire or a representative of the Controlling Body is not present;
  

the game must be continued either on the same day or on a different day. The scores will be as they were when the game was stopped. 

Suppose two teams are playing an end when the downpour occurs. The skips quickly agree to stop play. This means that according to Rule 33.2, the end is declared dead and will need to be replayed completely when bowling resumes. The moment the skips agree to stop play one of them, most appropriately whoever does not have the shot, should pick up the jack and fling it back towards the mat. By doing this there can be no later illegitimate argument that the end should be continued from where it was stopped. Doing so would be a violation of the rules so this action makes it de facto impossible!

Downpour During Skips’ Bowls

When the downpour comes, the skip who has the mat has two choices: ask for a 10-minute delay or ask if the opposing skip would agree to stop the match. The skip on the mat does not need to explain the alternatives to the other skip but can propose the choice most beneficial to his team. If it seems likely that his team can win points in the end— 

he should ask for a 10-minute delay whereupon if the weather has moderated, the end can continue, or

If it seems that his team will lose points in the end, he can propose a stoppage of play which if accepted will make the end dead. If a stoppage is agreed he should pick up the jack so that no dispute about continuation is possible later.

If a 10-minute delay has been granted by the opposing skip but the time expires and it is still raining, the Controlling body will, by then, have called a stoppage in play probably with a further delay, whereupon the end that had been delayed by agreement between skips becomes a dead end and will need to be completely replayed.

 

Downpour Just Before the Very Last Bowl is Played

If a skip is holding the last bowl of the end and has the mat when the torrential downpour arrives. (s)he has the two choices above plus one more choice:

• He can tell the opposing skip that he will not deliver the last bowl and pick up the mat. The end is consequently complete and the score must be tallied and the end counted.

Downpour After the Last Bowl is Played

Either skip can ask for and get agreement for a stoppage but the end must be counted and the score added to the scorecards of both skips. The two players responsible for scoring must agree while they are on the green. They may be both running towards the clubhouse already, but they must agree and record a score! 

Playing Lawn Bowls on Wet Greens

Lawn bowling is more fun in good weather but if you want a quality of competition higher than club-social, you need to sign up for tournaments. These events usually feature sponsorship, food service, and prize money, so they mostly proceed irrespective of the weather. Only lightning or other dangerous conditions stop play so as a participant you need to have the proper kit to be as comfortable as the circumstances allow.

Bowlers can purchase special water-impermeable jackets and coveralls. These do repel water but they don’t provide much ventilation so a bowler may be protected from precipitation but not from perspiration. The rules about wearing only whites or team colors seem to be dismissed during prolonged rain. Whatever you can muster will be accepted. Many players prefer just to get wet so long as it isn’t simultaneously cold. 

Umbrellas are not allowed on lawn bowling greens because the point acts as a lightning rod irrespective of whether there is a higher point in the vicinity.

If the weather report warns of inclement weather during the period of your play bring extra towels. This is often overlooked. Four or five towels will be needed if it is expected to rain throughout a match. Your team-mates may not be so prescient and you may have to lend to them. This might be your most consequential contribution of the day; it may improve every bowl delivered by your side. Certainly, it will be most welcome! 

Besides toweling the dirt and water from all the team’s bowls, it is useful to have some covering that can be draped over the heap of wiped bowls to keep the rain off until each is delivered.

This draping of your bowls can alternately be substituted by setting them on an extra mat placed on the bank behind the rink, covered with a small umbrella. However, this only works in the absence of wind!  

When it is raining,  several adjustments may help. If you have more than one set of bowls, try using the smaller bowls as you will find a better grip and an easier delivery with these when your hands are wet.  

Particularly if you normally do not use it, some form of Grippo can help. Gloves may improve your gripping. Golfers have special gloves…. or try those kitchen rubber gloves with grip ridges. I like the garden gloves that are cloth with rubberized palms and fingertips.  

If you have already practiced it, you can go so far as to change your grip. The claw grip requires your fingers to be tight against the bowl which is difficult when wet. A cradle grip supports the bowl with your entire palm. Delivering from a cradle grip provides more relaxed support when the bowl is wet and comprises a greater amount of rolling of the bowl off your fingers in the delivery. This gives the further benefit that it reduces divots. The more your bowl rotates in its initial few meters, the fewer the divots. 

A cradled bowl is less likely to be dropped during your downswing but may require a Bryant twist in your backswing to prevent the bowl from dropping at the top of its pendulum arc. 

The tendency to bend at any particular instant in the course of the bowl’s travel can be called the ’instantaneous bias’. This ‘instantaneous bias’ is a direct function of the instantaneous speed of the bowl at each point in its travel. Faster overall rolling produces less overall bending. On very wet greens your bowls effectively only swing in the last few meters, after having rapidly decelerated to where the bias can take effect. Because the initial force applied to a bowl delivered on very wet grass greens must not only overcome the natural resistance of the surface but also, as it spins around, throw off water transferred to the bowl from the grass, more weight must be provided on very wet greens and particularly when it is actually raining. That water is being thrown off the bowl is very evident from the ‘rooster tail’ that shoots up from the rolling bowl. Hence, narrow your draw for the heavier delivery on soggy grass greens and put more energy into the release.

When it is soaking wet or actually raining steadily it is better to play aggressively. It is more important than ever that you send all your bowls behind the jack. Run-through shots at the head are more likely to hit their target because the bias is much reduced by the heaviness of the green.

It is fair to say that when it is raining usually the sun is not shining. Also, when the sun disappears before the rain, it is normal for the air to cool rather quickly.  The first raindrops rapidly cool the bowling surface. The temperature change can quickly increase the frictional force resisting the movement of the bowls and you need more weight to travel the same distance. So both the cooling of the rain and the resistance from the wetness coming at the same time reinforce each other and make bowling heavier. On synthetic outdoor surfaces, the effect of the cooling is usually more than any resistance from the rain drops because there are no blades of grass to become heavy with beads of water on the synthetic carpet. In fact, a synthetic carpet can quickly wick away quite a lot of rainwater. It is only during or immediately after a torrential downpour that puddles appear briefly on most synthetic surfaces. In contrast, the change in temperature of a synthetic surface occurs even more rapidly than grass.

Moist but not Wet Grass

When the playing surface is just moist and does not actually have surface water droplets, the situation is different again and this is poorly understood and comes as quite a surprise to bowlers. The coefficient of rolling friction is less when the surface bears a microscopic film of water, such as when it is just moist to the touch. Less weight is required to achieve the same distance. Compounding this, when a bowl is released onto a moist surface it tends to slide at first and only then gets rolling. This sliding friction is less than the static friction encountered when a bowl lands on a completely dry surface so less energy is used up getting a bowl rolling at speed on the moist surface.

Laws of the Sport of Bowls fourth edition

6.2.6 To gain a better grip during adverse weather conditions a player can, before delivering their bowl, lift the mat, turn it over, and replace it in its original position.

Top Topics in the Greenbowler Blog

 

There are now hundreds of Greenbowler blog articles. For the convenience of readers, I have listed some of the most common topics. By putting these or other words into the in-blog search gadget a selection of the most pertinent articles will be presented. The more common groupings are:

 

• Block shots
• Controlling weight
• Head reading
• Measuring
• Moving the mat
• On- shots
• Practice
• Shooters’ stance
• Significant rules
• Strategy & Tactics
• Teaching
• Travel 
• Visualization

Aim Line with Mat Up at Lawn Bowls

Imagine that, when the mat was on the back T, you found that the correct aim line runs to a point on the front bank a particular number of meters to the side of the rink number.

On this theoretically perfectly flat rink, with the jack now sitting on the forward T and the mat brought forward, what fraction of that distance should you now use to deliver your bowl with the mat up?

This is an important question for players who want to actively move the mat. The change from bowling about 30 meters from T to T to bowling 21-23 meters from a mat drawn up to the Hog line changes several things simultaneously.

First, the curve of your bowl is going to pass over completely new areas of the rink. This is important because ( spoiler alert ) rinks are not actually flat over their entire surface!

Second, if you take an aim line running from the center of the mat to a point on the forward ditch, that proper point on the forward ditch moves closer to the rink number.

Then, third and most obviously, the required weight becomes markedly less.

That fraction  = {d.sin(tan^-1 W/L)}/W 

Where:

d is the distance to a jack on the forward T

W is the distance in meters from the rink number to the aim point on the forward bank and

L is the distance from the back T to the forward bank

This fraction turns out to substantially vary as a function of the full length of the green. Perhaps surprisingly, there is little variation as a function of the rink’s width.

I have prepared a table below showing the fractional change in aim point.

Notice that for small changes in mat position around the back T, any aim point on the forward ditch changes by an amount less than the likely error in delivering your bowl! Practical result— small changes in length around the back T are not pertinent for aiming.

Distance to jack For 34 meter rink          For 40 meter rink

d=21 meters         0.65  ( ∿ 2/3 )                  0.55

d=23 meters 0.72  ( ∿ 3/4 )                  0.61

d= 27 meters 0.84  ( ∿ 5/6 )                 0.71

d= 30 meters 0.94  ( ∿ 20/21 )                 0.79

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 has 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 already be holding your first bowl and 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 own first bowl of the end.

Leads are required to follow the instructions of their Skips and these instructions are provided by the 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 meters 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 and a warning. Did it hit something in its course? Did it backup and break its smooth curving path? The rink may tell its secrets but you must listen!

Opposing Lead’s Bowl is Close and Behind the Jack

You might think that an opposing first bowl that finishes just to the side of the jack and around a bowl diameter behind 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. If by chance you strike that bowl with a bit more velocity you will roll it back and perhaps 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 but 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 just played, you will have a better estimate of the correct aim line. If you have no natural preference and the two sides are, as far as you know, equally well-known and equally ‘forgiving’ choose the same side as that upon which the opposing bowl has come to rest. If your bowl trails the jack you prefer it to go away from the opposing bowl.

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

‘Jack high’ means that the front edge of the bowl so described is level with the front edge of the jack. Another term is jack level.

This is a favorable 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 the inside edge of this opposing bowl that will nudge 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 closer than the width of a bowl from the jack. This is the so-called ‘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 and slightly beyond the jack’s distance from the mat because that is where the jack is very likely to be by the completion of the end. You are being asked to prepare for the shot that will send this close bowl and the jack separate ways with the jack going hopefully towards your waiting bowl.

In Your Line but >1 meter in front of the Mat

Unfortunately, your skip will decide whether that bowl is in your drawline. I say unfortunately because often you will have a better idea of whether your delivery is blocked than your skip. For the sake of 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! Check your bias. This is a situation where you might forget and the innocent error would be regarded as mutiny! 

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 may be you who has shot bowl!

But if the opposition bowl is within 6 inches of the jack and you are asked to bowl the other hand still better! Your aim line runs between the bowl and jack but don’t be short. Anything behind is good.

Directly in Front of the Jack; Hiding the Jack

Your opposite has delivered an excellent shot. It is difficult to visualize your delivery when you cannot see the target. Ask your skip to show you the exact distance of the jack by placing a foot beside the jack with your toe pointing towards it. Let that visible toe be your target for visualizing your shot. There are three good outcomes of your delivery. You may hit this blocking bowl away. You may trail the jack or most likely of all you may widen the head making it easier to hit and disrupt.

 Centre Rink Close Behind the Jack

In lawn bowling ‘niggling’ is defined as unwarranted attacking your opposite's best bowls. Your opposition lead has delivered the best possible opening bowl!  Your own skip will probably call for you to get close behind the jack. Bowl enough narrow that besides getting behind the jack as your skip has instructed your bowl will make it back to center rink or even cross it. If perchance you hit something on the way you are a hero, if not you’ve done OK!

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

The lead whose side has possession of the mat has the privilege of delivering the jack. Remarkably to me, some people who can deliver bowls quite adequately cannot dependably keep the jack from passing out of bounds.  Therefore, a lead’s first responsibility is to be worthy of trust to keep the jack in bounds. The second responsibility is to be able to roll the jack to more or less the length the skipper signals.

In Canada and Portugal where I have mostly played, the centre line is not marked. When I bowled in Australia there was a clear white centre line extending about 10 metres out from the back ditch. Where there is no centre line, the lead needs to understand the skip’s signals that will be needed to make sure the mat is straight and on the center line, no matter where it is placed from the T up to the closest Hog line.

 While rolling and getting the jack centered, the lead’s first bowl should be sitting separate from the other bowls and close beside the mat. That way, immediately after the jack is centered, the lead can get set and deliver that first bowl. This is important because the weight used to deliver the bowl should be close to the same used for the jack and the shorter the intervening time the better the muscle memory.

Except for the first and second ends of a match, the lead should have learned the correct aim line from a previous end. It is the lead’s responsibility to remember the aim lines on the forehand and the backhand for each of the odd and even ends. The easiest way to do that is to remember the points where those aim lines intersect with the forward ditch. That is four distinct items. I used to write these down (for example): odd ends; forehand- at boundary, backhand- 3/4 towards boundary: even ends; forehand boundary, backhand 1 1/4 towards boundary.  These points move somewhat closer to center rink as the mat is moved up the rink toward the Hog line.

You can also learn how much bias to allow by watching the deliveries of other bowlers from a vantage position right behind the bowler to see precisely how they lay down their delivery and what the outcome is. You may have to make some allowance for the difference between your bowls and theirs. Check out what make and type of bowl they are used. That’s not against the rules!

For some reason that I cannot fathom, a lead’s first bowl is more often delivered too wide than too narrow when playing on grass.

This may be because, if the lead cannot remember the correct aim line for the hand and end, (s)he may take the boundary marker for the aim point. Because most greens in Canada or Portugal are somewhat slow, this aim line is too wide and the first bowl of the end doesn’t make it back to center rink. If you cannot remember or have never learned the correct aim line, I recommend running your aim line to intersect the front ditch 3/4 of the distance between the rink number and the boundary marker. This gives you a better chance to finish close to the jack on one side or the other.

The most important aspect of the first bowl of an end is that it should finish behind the jack. Perhaps you need to ask your skip to stand a useful distance behind the jack and imagine his/her feet as the target. However you do it, 70% preferably more of your first bowls need to finish behind the jack. 

When your side has the mat that first lead bowl is delivered with the knowledge that you have just sent the jack the same distance; but when you are the lead whose side did not deliver the jack, you must not fail to concentrate on visualizing the path your bowl must travel to reach that jack so that your first bowl will not be short. Watch carefully also the rhythm speed of the opposing lead to help with the weight. Of course, if it turns out to be a poor bowl you don’t want to emulate it!

As far as the correct aim line; you should remember it from previous ends but you also get a reminder hint from the line of your opposing lead— so long as you pay attention. 

The Usefulness of Moving Your Set Position On the Mat

 

What is the effect of moving on the mat and making the exact same delivery on a perfectly homogeneous and perfectly flat surface?

An assumption in this analysis is that one can repeat a delivery with exactly the same angle with respect to the center line and with exactly the same velocity. 

If your standard stare point is a spot on the forward bank you cannot use this technique.  Moving on the mat can have only a random effect. Your eyes are not good enough to change your aim point by such a small amount at such a great distance. 

If you are a bowler whose stare point is a physical discontinuity in the bowling surface between 3 and 5  meters in front of the mat, it is theoretically possible to effect a useful change in the finishing location of your bowl.

Suppose you move your anchor foot position 6 inches to the right in a horizontal direction with respect to the front edge of the mat while leaving unchanged the vertical location of your anchor foot. You then select a new stare point precisely six inches to the right of the first one at exactly the same distance in front of the mat line.

The original stare point, the new stare point, the new toe position of your anchor foot, and the old toe position of your anchor foot will now form the four vertices of a narrow parallelogram on the rink surface.

Now, so long as the bowl’s arc and your weight are the same as for the first delivery and so long as you exactly roll the bowl over your new stare point and have the exact same weight, then so long as the rink is perfectly homogeneous and perfectly flat this second bowl will finish 6 inches horizontal distance to the right of your first delivery. 

What this exercise leads one to conclude is that moving on the mat may be an effective strategy for a bowler that sets a stare point closer to the mat but will be futile for someone who aims with respect to a spot on the forward ditch!