Bowling green

Ah! Bowling Greens - i was wondering about Crown and Flat green bowling - is the Oulton Green Crowned or Flat?

Where I come from - Sheffield - I spent many happy hours on or around the bowling greens in Firth Park Longley Park and Concorde Park.

These were all Crown Green Bowling Greens - it was only when I moved away from Sheffield that I actually realised that there was another kind of bowls - one played on flat greens and up and down in straight lanes wearing white trousers shirts and hats - in Crown Green Bowls the green is 'crowned' not flat and you bowl in whatever direction you like... I think that there was some snobbishness about the games like Rugby League to Union - Crown to Flat - a North-South thing perhaps...

Here in Leicestershire where I now live all the greens are flat greens - well all the ones I've seen - everyone bowling up and down the straight lane or 'peg' allocted to them... I like the Crown version better... especially when there are several games going on at the same time - all criss-crossing the green - sometimes even collisions with bowls from other matches...

The greens in the parks in Sheffield that I remember were usually surrounded by privet hedges with benches against the hedges that you could sit down on and watch the games or just daydream on... I daresay that they are still there... hope so...

Here's a site that helps explain the differences:

Differences between Crown and Flat Green Bowls
And from the same site here are some examples of Crown Green speak:

All but
A stage in a game where a player needs only one point to win. Usually in the form of "Fred(a) is lying all but 19" which, if the game is to 21 points, means that the score at the moment is 20 to Fred(a) and 19 to the other player.

Bobby (Blocker)
A bowl deliberately played short of the jack so that the normal path to the jack is blocked from an opponent's point of view. The idea being to force the opponent to play with the other bias so as to find another way in to the jack or to guard against a 'firing' shot.

Blobbing
This term may be heard in South Yorkshire/North Derbyshire to describe the beating of an opponent to a nil score. See also 'Whitewash'.

Block (Jack)
A Crown Green jack has a bias which, for 'Standard Jacks', is now carefully controlled, and measured on a standard testing table.

Ditch
Gutter, channel, box. This marks the boundary of the playing surface. Any bowl or jack going into the channel is 'dead'.

Firing
Driving, striking. A bowl played at great speed so that the bias has little effect. The intention being to remove an opponent's bowl from counting, or to force the jack into the ditch so killing the end.

Knob
'Playing up to the knob'. Usually, but not necessarily, the crown of a green. It could be any high point on the green, and is used to good advantage by some players who specialise in short marks where delicate and accurate delivery is required.

Peg (Bias)
When a jack or bowl is played with the bias on the thumb side, this is known as thumb peg. Finger peg is, funnily enough, a jack or bowl played with the bias on the little finger side of the hand. This can be confusing when left and right handed players meet in a game. 'Sky bias' usually occurs when jack or bowl slips out of the player's hand during delivery, and travels on its side rather than its running surface thus causing it to bobble along the playing surface.

Playing through
An expression used to describe the delivery of a bowl played with enough pace to take the bowl a couple of yards past the end unless it makes contact with the intended target. This type of delivery is used to try and 'rest out' an opponents bowl, or take the jack through to the player's back bowl.

Rest out
To play a bowl so that it moves an opponent's bowl from adjacent the jack and rests in its place to count.

Toucher
A bowl played so that when it comes to rest it is actually in contact with the jack. Apart from being a bowl well played, it has no other significance in Crown Green bowling.

Whitewash
A player is whitewashed if beaten without scoring a point.

Who's on
A fairly standard query from a player who, when about to play a bowl, is wanting to know whose bowl is nearest the jack. Also 'which bowl is on', the equivalent of 'shot bowl' in Flat Green.

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Paul T Conneally
Education & Regional Director World Haiku Club

Director Haikumania Project
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/haikumania/