Getagame Gazette
volume 2 no 6 August 2017
Articles In This Edition | | Bowls in the Coffs Harbour regionPromote *|CLUB|* through its getagame pagesPlaying the Positions (The Third)Beating the Big Drive
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Bowls in the Coffs Harbour Region
I have recently arrived home from 12 day holiday at Coffs Harbour
This came about from contact through getagame with the wonderful Park Beach club about their singles tournament, a great event with 120 players and $33000 prize money.
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The tournament was played over 5 days with ten groups of 4 playing on each of the first three days. The 30 group winners and two lucky losers then played in 8 groups of 4 on the Thursday with finals on Friday.
A fabulous Calcutta which was drawn for the 32 Thursday players added to the interest of the week
This year Mat Pieterson was the winner (for the third time) beating fellow St John’s Wood member Julio Posadas in the final |  |
I made an effort to visit every club in the region, and was surprised when I found both an unlisted club and a closed club. This region has an appealing mixture of clubs large and very small. Park Beach runs a variety of big tournaments. The five day singles was followed by a two day woman's pairs which involved many well known players and a mixed pairs with good purses.
The smaller clubs were well worth visiting including Red Rock to the North and North Beach to the South. I stayed in an economical single room at the Sawtell Hotel, which featured a great sea food restaurant and was opposite a big RSL where I could see AFL games on a big screen.
This area is certainly worth a stay for bowling grey nomads. The big Sawtell bowling club, like most of the smaller clubs, is near the local caravan park, and when I played there on a Sunday morning there were bowlers from many Southern clubs enjoying their excellent greens.
The clubs I visited were |
Promote your bowling club through its getagame pages
While at Coffs Harbour I decided to insert a new feature in getagame.
Every club which has events listed on getagame can generate five pages which are exclusive to that club. (street map, earth map, list of weekly social games, details of tournaments, details of weekly social)
I offer the chance for your club to send me a suitable picture file advertising your club or a sponsor. I have changed the software so that these advertisements will appear on all of the club exclusive pages. They should look like BrightonSA weekly socials or BrightonSA one day singles tournament
I am sure your graphics will be better than the one I made up for Brighton last night!
The specification for these files are
height up to 200.
Width between 200 and 600
File preferred gif or jpg
Please attach the file to an email to me at bob@paxtoncat.com.au.
This is another service from getagame at no cost to your club. If you think you should pay please send a donation to your local Legacy club
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Playing the Positions (The Third)
This is the third article in which I look at the coaching advice given in the grand old books on bowls.
R. T. Harrison Bowls the Text Book of the Game
Duties of the third, what are they?
One is not to give any direction whatever without the end has been disturbed or there is something to indicate that has escaped the skipper. A talking third is a tragedy, a discreet and silent one a treasure
The one and great thing the third should padlock to is to get that saving shot for the side. That means restraint. It is all very well for the third to think 'if I miss it skip will get it'. These are bad politics. It is the duty of the third to get that saver, which means safety first
The third should do everything at his or her end that the skip cannot do at the other end - see that the other two do not get wanderlust, make understandings known that are not understood and generally keep an eye of the running of the rink
Don't fight the skip or try to enforce your opinions. The skip may choose to play a shot not in keeping with the views of the other three but you must not comment. Cross purposes reflect themselves on the score
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Albert Newton Fundamentals of Lawn Bowls
Newton says the same initially as Harrison as well as
Although the promoted third has gained status in a rink the third is still working for a boss and should have no ideas of importance
The third must gain the confidence of the skipper who when in doubt will wait at the head for the third to come up and then ask for an opinion. If the skipper does not wait, the third should never interfereThere are three important match winning shots which are not often asked of a player before becoming third - they are the block, the position wood and the trail of the jack. If you don't have these skills get them!Keep still while the skippers are playing their shotsMeaure carefully
The diagram on the right is from Harrison's book and is a valuable resource about the now unfashionable art of blocking
Note that the angle of the block shot appears to be about twice the angle for the draw and the weight is reduced.
I have not tested this and intend to do so. Do any readers have any information about this? |  |
Glyn Bosisto Bowling Along
Bosisto says everything above!! and
The third should encourage the other two to forget any conversions by the other skipper and concentrate on recovery instead of their ill luck It is taken for granted that a bowler chosen for the third position has the shots to go with it . The ideal third possesses control over shots ranging from an accurate draw on either hand to a good resting shot and either a hard running shot or a fast drive
It is interesting that all three writers concentrate mostly on the people skills of the third. They just presume that the third will have the required bowling skills but rink management is more important
Find some routines for solo practice for thirds here
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Beating the Big Drive
At the Park Beach Open singles former English international David Holt was playing in a group game against a bowler with a very strong drive.
Holt was in good form and immediately drew very well, but after a few ends was down 6-2 at his opponent killed some ends and won others by driving the jack into the ditch. He regained the mat, put it on the tee and rolled the jack for a near minimum end.
Over the next 10 ends Holt drew well and his opponent stayed with the drive. However the extra distance from the ditch resulted in no driven jacks in the ditch during this time.
There were a few dead ends but almost all the shots were won by Holt and he was soon leading 16-7 and the game was won
This is an interesting example of Maths in bowls. The diagrams below show the difference between a connection at the T and at minimum length.The vertical line is the bank fron the number to the peg and the horizontal line is the centre line of the rink from bank to jack. The average length of a green allowed by the laws of bowls is 35.5 metres and the average width of a rink is 5.8 metres. At minimum length of 21 metres with the mat on the tee the jack is 12.5 metres from the ditch | David Holt is now a member of St Johns Park and is the NSW manager for Henselite.
His international achievements include
English International Indoor and Outdoor 1988 –
2002 (Over 150 Games)
World Indoor Pairs Champion 2002
Commonwealth Games Fours Winning Skip 2002 |
jack on T mat anywhere
angle 55 degrees
(vertical 2.9m horizontal 2m) | 
mat on T, minimum length
angle 13 degrees
(vertical 2.9m horizontal 12.5m)
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The radius of the jack is 32mm and half of the width of a standing bowl is about 50-55 mm. Some contact will be made when the driven bowl is up to about 90 mm from dead centre.Since a very fine snick will send the jack at 90 degrees it is perhaps reasonable to say that the jack will deviate by nearly 1 degree for each mm the drive is off dead straight With the jack on the T this means that it will probably finish alive in the ditch if contact is made within 55 mm of dead centreWith the mat right back and minimum length the contact would need to be within 13mm of dead centre for it to finish alive in the ditch Hence a drive hitting the jack on the T is 4 times more likely to result in a live jack in the ditch than a drive hitting a jack on minimum length with mat on the T
For those interested in the Maths the diagrams come from an internet search which calculated the angles using the trigonometric function arctan
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