Smaller is harder to hit Some people say that playing with a smaller bowl puts you at a disadvantage because it moves further when struck. I’ve had bowlers, especially men, come into our shop and insist on a size 4 or 5 because, not to put to fine a point on it, bowling with anything less is an affront to their manhood. They seem to be anxious that one day in a mixed triples they’ll hear the phrase “Oh, you’ve got small bowls”. Well, ballistics tests prove that displacement anxiety is overblown. ANY bowl of any size can be displaced by a player using controlled weight, whereas a drawn bowl will displace a size 00 near the jack hardly at all, and not at all if it isn’t on it’s running edge. On the other hand, the smaller the bowl nestling just behind the jack, the harder it will be to target. So the launch of competition-legal size triple zero and quad zero bowls (000 and 0000) will be welcomed by all bowlers with small hands, or arthritis, or Parkinsons, or any other issue that means 00 size is not quite small enough. Drakes Pride have always made a ‘Junior’ bowl with a diameter of 9.85 cm, but they are not stamped for competition use. This compares with 11 cm for the competition legal size 00 Professional model. The new World Bowls stamped and approved Drakes Pride Professional lawn bowls size 0000 is approx 10.25 cm, and the size 000 is 10.6 cm and although the differences seem small it will make ALL the difference. Prices for the new sizes are £245 (Black) and £285 (colours). Now in stock for you to touch and feel. As for the debate about whether a bowl smaller than a 00 will get ‘knocked about’ by bigger bowls in a match situation … let’s knock that one on the head! |