A typical “friendly” bowls match takes place on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, between clubs that are relatively close neighbours. The Barlestone Bowls Club in Leicestershire has fixtures throughout the summer from April to September, approximately half being played on the “home” green and the rest “away”.
Announcing the Teams
The two team captains stand on the green, the home captain welcomes the visitors, states the format of the match (i.e. how many ends will be played) and then invites the visiting captain to announce his team. The captains then read out, in turn, the players on each rink, hand the scorecards to each skip, and the players make their way to their rinks.
When everyone has got to the right place, everyone introduces themselves to the opposite team, shakes hands, and the game begins.
It is normal, in friendly matches, for the visiting team to be given the honour of setting the first jack on all the rinks. The skips and (usually but not always) the number three players walk down the green, the visiting lead places the mat and sends the jack down the rink, and the game is on.
Playing the Match
It is common in friendly matches to play “one on the first two ends”. This means that, although all the bowls will be bowled, only the bowl that ends up closest to the jack when all bowls have been sent will count towards the score. The first two ends (i.e. one in each direction) are therefore the equivalent of trial ends, allowing the players to get the feel of the green without worrying too much about where their bowls end up. After the first two ends, all the bowls can count towards the score.
When the leads and number two players have sent their bowls they walk up the green and the number threes walk down. After the threes have bowled, they walk back to the “head” and the skips walk down to play their bowls. The threes therefore do twice as much walking as anyone else during a typical match.
It is usual for the side winning an end to place the mat and set the jack for the next end. However, it is an option open to the winning skip to allow the losing side to do this. The reason for this is that he will then play the final bowl of the end and may therefore be in a position to win the end without the other side being able to respond. This tactic is quite often used for the final end of the match, especially if the scores are close.
Keeping the Score
This is done by the number two players, who not only mark the scorecards but also keep the scoreboard at the end of the rink up to date. However, number two players should also bear in mind that, after an end has finished, there are bowls to be pushed or kicked back to the edge of the rink, ready for the next end.
Stopping for Tea
This is normally done after about ten or eleven ends of a 21 ends match. If the match started at 2.30pm this may well be at around 4.00pm. Most players are ready for a break at this point, especially if it is a particularly hot (or cold, or wet!) day.
There is a saying in bowls that “everything changes after tea”. This may or may not be the case, but playing 21 ends straight through is usually not the best way of keeping one’s concentration at maximum pitch.
Finishing the Match
The full 21 (sometimes 23) ends will be played, even if the score means that the result of the game on a rink will not be affected whatever happens. It has to be remembered that a match result consists of all the scores added together, so the scores on all the rinks, for every end, are important.
Because it is normal to play an odd number of ends, the final head will be at the wrong end of the green. The convention of the “penny end” was introduced to get round this problem. This is simply a fun way of getting the bowls back to where they started.
Friendly matches start and end with handshakes all round, and the conventional “well bowled” greeting, even to players whose bowling has been little short of diabolical!
John Welford - I was a full-time professional librarian for more than 25 years before redundancy made me take a fresh direction. I now work as a ...
