Your Bowls Forums

Do Bowlers in South Africa use the idea of the 3 to 1 rule and the 6 to 1 rule?
Does anyone know the source of these two concepts?

I don't think I have heard of them, Bill.
Could you give us some more info.

John

I had hoped that I would not need to do so but - If you want to push up a bowl one unit of distance (say one foot) then you need to play with three units of weight (i.e. three feet). It follows that if you try to hit up a bowl three feet short then you have to play with nine feet of weight. Thus if the Skipper chooses this shot he runs the risk that most Players will play the shot with too much weight - in my opinion. (See my notes - Why do Players over bowl yard-on shots - in the page called Communications in my web site. Thus he will reduce his chance of having "bowls on the head".
Six to One rule. If you want to run through a bowl one unit of weight, you need to play with six units of weight.
These "rules" do not work perfectly because of a number of factors including - does the stationary bowl rate as on its running surface or sitting flat. Does the played bowl hit the stationary bowl right in the middle or some degress off centre.