BOWLS MARKING .....
I remember from my teens ,some years ago on crown green,that the bowls
were marked with their actual bias and had an indentation on the bias side .This made purchase much easier and the indentation reduced the number of wrong bias deliveries a great deal .
I appreciate that it must be more economical when producing bowls , not to have to test and mark them , but , it would appear to be a retrograde step .
What do you think ?
Response Number 1 :Posted by Bill Jones Friday, July 02, 2004 at 21:10:18 (EDT):
I think the Bowl should have the Bias clearly marked on it for this reason!!The standard is checked for Minimum Bias But what is the minimum Bias allowed.Here we have bowls which are clearly manufactered for fast greens as in Austrailia,and have a very narrow draw,but when you play with these on a convention green as in Canada these bowls tend to be Straight and in my oppinion are killing the game as when you build up a good head they comme along with the minimum bias bowls and clear everything out.Can you imagine what the game would be like if every body was using these on a green running at around 12-14 secs.These bowls are coming into Canada to accomodate the artificial green running at 18-20 secs.it is extremly difficult to play on this green with conventional bowls as you have a draw of around 20 ft and have to continually go well into the next green.
What are your thought on this?
Regards Bill Jones
PS Are the people at the top not aware of this?
They played a major tournament on this green and consequently won all the medals.
Response Number 2 :Posted by S.R.Hancock Thursday, July 15, 2004 at 15:44:54 (EDT):
Hi! Bill ,<br> I believe that the reason that the bias is not marked on the bowls is that is easier and cheaper to roughly test bowls and not being marked , there can be no comeback if the bias varies .<br> I agree with you about the narrow bowls spoiling the game but being expensive narrow indoor bowls are purchased and then used for outdoors , for which they are not suitable .<br> A check of winners tends to show that they use narrow bowls but it does take out most of the interest .I had some fairly narrow bowls but became bored with them and bought some swinging bowls .<p> It would appear that we live in a time of change and with the price of bowls the problem will persist .<p> Enjoy your bowls Bill , it is still a great game .<p> Roy