Slow Greens and Bias changes

 Was asked an interesting question from an seasoned player.. "When the green is not recently cut does the grass growth effect your bowl's Bias ?" A answer for the beginner is "NO" unless you are referring to the "green Speed" but how much you see, read and expect from your bowl can be of enough important to have a  "Yes" reply  for the trophy player to see deeply into such a deep question.

Just a minute.. Lets get a little laugh in here.  Lawn Bowls for Dogs is a blog of 2015 from Russia.  Rolling the bowl with their nose..  and good for their health.. really true facts. Yes, the 2015 blog is "Lawn bowls for Dogs"

So the Russian site says "Dog Lawn Bowl - It is known that dogs often too quickly absorb the food, just lashing out at it, and swallowing it all at one sitting. Because of this, the animal can  create health problems.  To help the four-legged friend to eat normally, experts have proposed a new device that approaches the normal course of  feeding.  It is a bowl that has a special design. . It is a unique model of what looks like lawn where the grass grows high. . The total surface 43 "stalk" of a height from 5 to 10 cm, which are arranged at small distances from each other.  In between these interstices (between the "grass") one serves and pour the food which will not be available as freely as in a conventional bowl. . The creators estimate that the time it will take for a dog to get the food out of a bowl, will be almost 20 minutes". (after translation and grammer correction)

Now you looked up that blog and laughed.. so now that question.

The small details of this question are not really important. Unless you’re drawing to within a few inches of the jack and your opponent is just as good as you. So what is important if the question of "whether uncut grass affects your bias" is  insignificant.

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Answer - The question you are asking would suggest you want to know why your bowl seems to be affected? Maybe, your question is the wrong approach and after the answer here, you will go on to another approach to this bias problem.  A lover of Bowls or any other sport would not ignoring their problem and look hard even if there seems to not be an answer. 

 Maybe, like in my early years when I always had sore ankles after partice games it was wise to ask an Level 3 coach because it could be your delivery action. My problem was as I moved forward with the step I was turning my ankle sideways and twisting my ankle several times during a game.  Took me all one year to correct that problem. Muscle memory" had to be changed and believe me at that time I did not even know what "muscle Memory" was let alone how to reprogram it. The bigger question is "Why are you asking about this ?"

Let’s assume that the question comes from green # 4 and everytime when you have bowl up that green,you found your bowl has straightened out for several feet and so you may think there is a ridge there. Expecting the solution is like all ridges affecting a bowl when playing a  bowling surface, your bowl has gone over the top  of the ridge and stayed out. You have learned over years, that one of the solutions it to moved the mat up a few meters to miss that ridge from your line of delivery but  to your surprise the same occurs the next time.  Certainly there is not a ridge in that direction of the Green which runs a full length of the green; so there’s another reason. Maybe, a quick solution is to say "the setting up the greens means this green (color red) has something strange". So next week, you will check out the green when the white green markers are used. After waiting a week weather does not allow you to play. You are asking why your bowls are going straight and if it was because the green was not

 recently cut. You are asking the questions and looking for the answer.. Good, as it means you expect more of yourself than just accept you are a bad bowler with problems. And you are asking all kinds of strange questions like is this "bowls" or "Bulbs" in the photo.. A beautiful field (had to add color to too serious a blog)

At this club, there are a lot of winter curlers and maybe someone suggested that like curling where the curling friction on the side of a turning stone can cause it to resist and swing toward the center; this is happening to the bowl. Natural to see the curling swing to center line much like a bias on a bowl. So you think, "If the green had not been cut for a couple of days and the sun had always set  to the west and we know plants (grass also) bend toward the sun; maybe the grass leaves, although very small. have all now  a bend and leaning towards the west. Of course, just north south delivery could have a bent grass effect on the east side of your delivery as the standing grass on the other side is resistance to the bowl. In other words, your ball would want to take a swing to the "East" but is rolling into standing grass and being forced to fight the resistance of the uncut grass.  Strange, but how we see things we don't know is never too strange.Yes, about now someone has said "You are thinking too much" which to me sounds like "Just bowl and accept what happens". "No need for improvements" "Just have fun"

 So the question is not important, except that when your bowl has gone straight your normal solution is to move the mat up and avoid the problem. But not knowing why and trying this solution of advancing the mat  has wasted an end of play. Hopely the moving the mat up was a decision which did not result in a lost of points or several points. 

Like curling where a little turn of the stone has sufficient action (effect) to cause a movement of the stone towards the centre line; you are right to believe that such resistance on the bowl will act like a ridge and prevent the bias of the bowl to be normal. To be interested in what is affecting your bowl is a serious question and leads always to an improvement in performance. when you find the answer.

The important aspect is that.. You are become more serious about your bowls and you are looking at the different things that can affect your bowls. This is good because if the wind was forcing your bowl off line or increased  their bias;you would not ignore the wind and not change your line of delivery. To see the effect of wind on your bowls the blog "Bowls in New Zealand strong wind" still has the 2021 video on youtube.

 Likewise, in looking for the answer you are aware that in early spring  the cuts of greens are usually with more grass height left on the bowling green (to allow the roots to get a good start) and then in the late fall where the end of the bowl season we find that the greenskeeper  seems to cut shorter (below 1.4 mm) because the well developed root system can handle such a cut. And in any case  the bowls season is almost over it would be nice to have a fast green.  The yellow color greens we sometimes see are usually a bit too low a cut as such a cuts apporach close to a millimetre height of grass.

Fact - One of the variables that affect your draw weight is the condition of your playing surface. We often refer to the green as being fast or slow, and we understand that a slow green requires more weight during your delivery to get to the Jack. Also very fast greens allow for a better "Finish" on your Bowl's Bias. However, if you are really serious the answer is "Yes"  the grass length will affect your bias if bowling North/South in late afternoon. But not enough for you to see but maybe enough to get that really special "finish"when finally it stops at to the jack.

Fact - The answer is not the raison for intelligent quere but the quest and the question is showing the value of a thoughtful search for truth is good.