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 thee 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 that 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 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. 

More Comprehensive Lawn Bowls Signals Can Produce Better Game Results

Most novices know no more about signals than those indicating which hand to bowl on. This is because the single objective for beginner leads is to place at least one bowl close to the jack and preferably it should become the shot bowl. Leads are actually only rarely asked to change hands and niggling to obtain shot is seriously frowned upon. (Niggling is trying to knock away the other lead’s bowls.) They should leave the take out for the more experienced team members. When the opposing lead has clearly delivered a bowl that will almost certainly be shot, your skip is most likely to ask you to place receiving bowls or ‘catchers’. Your bowls should not be short, where they will obstruct your team’s effort to change the head. The saying is “when down be up.”

All team members should be able to read a variety of signs from the skip. Before stepping onto the mat, each person about to bowl should stand behind the mat and look down at the skip to receive signalled messages. The bowler can also signal questions for the skip, such as, “Are we up or down?” “Which hand do you recommend?”

Stop

At first your skip will need to start every communication with this signal. Otherwise, the person on the mat may deliver a bowl before information is exchanged. The skip places both hands in front of his/her chest palms facing towards the boiler on the mat. Like a traffic cop the message is STOP.

Catcher Bowls

A proposal for a signal to place receiving bowls and make a sustained effort not to be short could be cupped hands. The hand on which the bowl should be grassed can also be indicated or the lead can signal to be advised about the best side to bowl. Usually the skip will not ask for a change in hand when asking for a catcher bowl.

Put the Bowl in this Spot

Sometimes the skip will want to signal that a bowl should be delivered to a particular spot. The skip may be worried that the jack could be knocked in among a group of opposing bowls. This can be signalled by pointing the index finger towards the ground at the desired spot and rotating in an inward spiral motion.

Put another Bowl in the Head

This signal is delivered without fanfare. Unlike other signals, the object is to hide from the opponents what is being signalled. If the skip is concerned that a big count against is possible, if one of his team’s bowls is knocked out, the call will be for another close bowl in the head. The signal is to place the index finger on the side of the head as if scratching. The bowler should aim to draw to the jack, but not close to that single potential counter. In particular, the bowler should be especially cautious himself not to drive out that important bowl!

Cover the Back

A lead is unlikely to need to receive this instruction, but if the opposing lead delivers two or three bowls that are all good receiving bowls a skip might call for these to be ‘covered’ by placing a bowl in their midst to prevent the opposition from trailing the jack into the cluster. The signal for a covering bowl could be both hands cupped over the head like a hat. Most often covering will be required by the vice. Another form of cover asks for what is termed the ‘backest bowl’. This is the bowl closest to the ditch that is still in play. The signal to cover may be accompanied for a particular delivery location.

The signal has a special meaning when playing under conditions where there are no dead ends and the jack is respotted. Covering in this situation requires bowling to one of the re-spotting locations in anticipation of a drive to break up the head.

Jack or Bowl

When a bowl is jack high and there are 6 inches or less between the bowl and the jack, the pair present a most enticing target. A skip may want to go after this target early before the opponents can nudge either the jack or the bowl into a more protected orientation. The skip would signal jack or bowl meaning that a controlled weight shot should be directed at the head where hitting either the jack or the close sitting bowl would produce a great result. A possible signal for this would be for the skip to stand up close and directly behind the pair with both hands pointing down and with both palms away from the mat and alternately raise and lower each hand in turn while maintaining the palms open hidden from the mat.

Run-On through X Meters

Signalling this tactic is very frequently encountered by players who are vice skips. What is being requested is that the bowler should deliver a shot that will pass through the head and continue on for several meters after making contact. The skip points with his index finger at the side of his head and  then indicates, by raising a number of fingers, how much more weight should be placed on the bowl. A run through can also be called from the lead or second if one of the team’s bowls can be promoted onto the jack. If the bowl misses it becomes a good catcher for future tries.
 

Drive or Up-Shot

Disrupting the head with sufficient force that the end is often killed or the jack respotted is the most frequent purpose of the drive shot. The drive is almost always played by the skip. Very occasionally when the vice is a better driver, a skip may call for a drive from him or her. When a drive is called for it is important that the opponents also know what is coming because the bowls on nearby rinks need to be protected and there can be a danger of the jack flying through the air. When a signal is needed it can be the person at the head holding an imaginary bowl with a straight arm above the head as high as he can reach. It is important that everyone in the head recognize that a runner is coming. Since most drives are delivered by the skip, signalling is rarely needed but the signal is used as a warning. The skip makes this decision.

Block

When a novice is playing skip there will be many occasions when he has the second last bowl still to deliver but the best course is not to go near the head but take one’s chance that the opponent cannot convert it to their advantage with their single remaining bowl. In this situation the novice skip may be called on to place a block shot to challenge the last bowler even more severely. This can be done by placing a short bowl that would interfere with either a drive or a run-through shot that could disrupt the head, whichever is most likely. A signal calling for a block shot could be the tracing a square figure in the air with the index fingers of both hands used simultaneously.

A block will be most effective if one hand and the center drive are completely blocked by rather short bowls that cannot be promoted. Then a very short blocker at about 14 meters in the path of the remaining draw shot would be most effective. It should be delivered inside out to keep it off the neighbouring rinks.

Do Not

Sometimes the skip wants to signal what (s)he does not want the bowler to do. The signal is forearms crossed in an X in front of the face. This signal, for best effect, should be preceded by the ‘stop’ signal because otherwise the partner on the mat may not give it the attention required.

STOP

The stop signal is sent by the skip waving two arms to get attention and then extending both arms horizontally in front, fingers together and palms facing the mat as if his/her hands were a traffic stop sign. The signal that is very important then follows once attention has been gained.

I would love….

Skip places hands one on top of the other over his/her heart. What follows this signal conveys what the skip wants the bowler to try. For example. I would love… followed by the sign for a blocker. Then followed by the signal Bowl to here. 

Bowl to here

This signal is use by the skip to ask the bowler to place his bowl as close as possible to a particular spot which is different from trying to bowl to the jack.. This signal is used for placing blocker, placing a catching bowl or bowling to a ‘false jack’. The skip hangs his bowls towel down over the spot (s)he want to bowl to stop.

Chop & Lie on this Bowl

Sometimes your side would like to move an opposing bowl and take its position. This is called chop & Lie. The particular opposing bowl is the target and a little extra weight is needed. The skip can point close over the target and then make a repetitive sharp chopping motion with both hands.

If you regularly play with the same teammates, use these ortogether devise your own signals for what your team most often wants to communicate. 

Don’t Deliver the Jack Your Opponent’s ‘Natural Distance’ at Lawn Bowls

 

Each individual bowler has a particular ‘natural distance’ under a given set of green and weather conditions. This ‘natural distance’ is the number of meters his/her bowl will travel when delivered with a smooth, effortless, thought-free swing, on that rink, at that time.

Only players who have developed a grooved delivery after playing thousands of bowls have a ‘natural distance’. Tyros vary everything- position on the mat, posture, starting elevation of the bowl, degree of backswing, and length of step. With some or all of these shifting around, no natural length is possible: nor is any real control of length achievable.

Consequently, in this blog I’m talking about experienced bowlers playing against each other.

If there are practice ends most bowlers when they get them will deliver the jack to the length they are planning to play most often. Initially you can assume that this is their natural length. If you have the mat at the start of the match, do not deliver the jack this length! As play continues identify and remember any length at which the opposition seems particularly accurate. When you have the mat, remember and don’t play that length. In team bowls it is the skip who needs to be watching this, since it is the skip who calls for a particular length jack.

If you know nothing about the opposing side, assume that their natural distance is a medium length jack. Play longer or shorter instead.

Head Analysis: When the Jack is Really a Wider Target at Lawn Bowls!

    ➡︎  

The jack is only 64 millimeters in diameter. No wonder trailing the jack intentionally is so difficult. But sometimes it would seriously help your side if it were moved back a bit. Fortunately, there are situations where the target for moving the jack is significantly enlarged.

Suppose the head looks as in the figure above. Certainly, it would be very beneficial if the jack (lemon yellow circle) could be rolled a bit further down the rink since your bowls are the orange ones. The black bowls belong to your opposition.

You need not despair because the target to achieve jack movement is actually as wide as the cluster of bowls immediately in front of it. That is to say, if you can strike at any point on those two front bowls there is an excellent chance that the jack will be displaced backward towards your waiting catcher bowls.

Try practicing a running shot through the cluster with about 4 meters of weight!

The Remarkable Shot that Taught Us Some Rules

 

On Hallowe'en day the weather was mild in Toronto Canada so we had a pick-up men's pair match at James Gardens LBC. An unusual situation arose sending us scrambling to the Laws of Bowls Crystal Mark 4. Extraordinarily, we have images of the head position taken before the final shot of the end; the shot that elicited the questions. 

The top image shows part of the head before the delivery of the last blue bowl. My bowls are the lemon yellow ones; two close to the ditch and another in the ditch beside the jack. My ditched bowl is a toucher. None of my partner's bowls are close enough to be in the picture.  The green bowls and the single blue bowl belong to the opposition. The visible blue bowl is also a toucher. Although it can't be seen, all paths to knock my two yellow bowls into the ditch are blocked so my opponent with his last single blue bowl decided to try to move his single blue toucher to reduce the count.

He delivered a drive aiming to slice his toucher and send it in the direction of all the yellow bowls. In the event, he hits the shortest green bowl, bounces off it towards the yellow bowls, bounces off the bank, and removes the yellow bowl on the rink closest to the jack.  To add to the fun his blue bowl stays exactly where the yellow bowl it displaced had been sitting.

In the actual game, we incorrectly thought this bowl was live and the result was we scored just one - my yellow in the ditch. 

This was incorrect as we discovered later.

37.17.1 A bowl is a dead bowl if: 

• 17.1.1  it is not a toucher and comes to rest in the ditch; 
• 17.1.2  it is not a toucher and rebounds onto the rink after contact with the face of the bank or with the jack or a toucher in the ditch

37.5.3  Displacement of a bowl at rest

• If a bowl at rest or a toucher in the ditch is displaced by a non-toucher rebounding from the face of the bank, an opponent or the marker must put it back to its former position. 

My side should have scored three! But what a shot!

Controlling Weight at Lawn Bowls When You Take a Stare Point at 5 or more Meters

 

For a decade I worked with a stare point on my aim line 3 to 5 meters out from the front edge of the mat. This blog article is directed towards players who do this. If you take your stare point as the theoretical shoulder on the visualized path of your bowl, then this blog is not for you!

Using a stare point between 3 and 5 meters out along your aim line has the very significant advantage that you will know definitively after your bowl has been delivered whether you missed rolling the bowl over your stare point or whether it is your aim line that is wrong.

The disadvantage of the method is that you will have no instantaneous visual clue to help you get your weight correct. That will be entirely up to your recollection of the entire visualized path from a few moments before.

About 10 years ago I was in a roll-up at Broadbeach Bowls Club in Queensland Australia and a skip visiting from Melbourne gave me a tip about controlling weight when you use a stare point near the mat. He told me that if I was trying to deliver a bowl to a short jack my stare point should be no more than 3 meters out along my aim line, but if I wanted greater length I should be choosing a stare point 5 or 7 meters out.

At the time I tried following this advice and I remember my weight control did improve but I paid attention to it less and less thereafter, mainly because it didn’t make sense; why should it work?

Recently, during a practice session, a possible reason dawned on me.

If you are delivering a bowl to a short jack at 21-23 meters and you apply enough weight to get your bowl to travel along the aim line and over a stare point at 5 or more meters the bowl will be delivered too heavy. To roll straight along your aim line and over your stare point you have forced yourself to use too much weight. Instead, with a stare point only 3 meters away, you can bowl along your aim line, over your stare point, and still only apply the correct weight needed to reach the shorter jack.

In the alternative, if you are trying to roll your bowl straight along the aim line and over your stare point 5-7 meters out, that forces you to apply more weight and forces you not to be short!

Pertinent Definitions

An ‘aim line’ is the imaginary straight line that runs from the intersection of the rink’s center line and the front edge of the mat to a selected point on the front bank of the green. The bowler selects an aim line.

A ‘stare point’ is an imagined spot on an aim line over which the bowler tries to roll a bowl. 

Knowing How to Drive is Vital to Avoid Being Defeated by Long Jacks

The most popular strategy in lawn bowls is to consistently play long ends. The smallest deficiency in an opponent's bowling delivery is exaggerated when the shot that must be played is a heavy one. Moreover, many bowlers just don’t have the physical strength to bowl one long end after another.

The best defense is to get very good at rolling the jack very short and getting very good at drawing to very short jacks, to keep possession of the mat so you can make most ends short. But there is another element to this strategy that is too frequently ignored.

No matter how skilled your side may be, sometimes your opponents will get the closer bowls. On these occasions, you must be able to dependably deliver a weighted shot to break up that head.

This is how to get it right!

First, delivering a weighted shot that disrupts a head does not demand great strength. When one tries to break up a head, especially those only 21-23 meters beyond the mat, as the ones we are talking about will be, most players swing too hard. The bowl then misses and finishes in the forward ditch. You should deliver the bowl that will disrupt a short end with the weight required to travel somewhere between 27- 32 meters, whatever is comfortable for you, BUT that weight, whatever you choose, must be precise and consistent.

Second, you must study, before you need the information, by what fraction you must narrow your normal draw angle so it crosses the center line at a distance of 21-23 beyond the mat. Depending on the playing surface this will be between 1/3 and 1/4 of your normal draw angle.

Third, and least appreciated and the cause of most failures, you must walk off the mat following your bowl. This is important because it forces you to keep your body weight moving smoothly forward along your aim line and eliminates any jerkiness that would throw off your line as you release the bowl. 

 Even with normal draw shots, I try to remember to walk off the mat but it is the most frequent element of my delivery that I forget. When delivering a weighted shot to a short jack it is crucial not to forget. 

Delivering a Useful Back Bowl is at least Five Times Easier than a Useful Blocker

Recently I wrote a Greenbowler blog article on the subject of making block shots easier. Afterward, in some practice sessions applying this advice, wherein I assessed whether these attempts actually provided the protection sought, I discovered that only a small percentage of the blocking bowls I tried delivering were effective.

On the other hand, putting in strategically placed back bowls was at least five times easier than bowling a successful block shot.

Covering the respotting position ( on the center line two meters out from the forward ditch )seemed to be the action of choice if the opposition otherwise would have the closest bowl there.

In addition, I found an unexpected advantage in delivering any back bowls that were aimed to finish midway between the centre line and one of the boundaries. When delivering these, I sometimes found that the draw needed to reach these locations was quite different from what I would have guessed. This information would prove useful in playing to displaced jacks later in a match!