Another outdoor bowling season draws to a close. This is the last end of my last game on a sunny Sunday afternoon. My first indoor game is tomorrow night, so I’m going to miss Boa’s ‘S’ quiz unless it’s really, really difficult or the usual suspects have left a few scraps for those arriving late at the feast.
Talking of things drawing to a close, my apologies for the non-appearance to date of ‘Battleships III – the Final Curtain’. I am working on it and it will appear next week.
The outdoor season has gone by in a flash and ‘time’s winged chariot’ seems to be going into hyperdrive for me in so many ways as I get older. I’m hoping that ‘Battleships’ coming on trickle again will slow things down nicely and give the illusion that the days are passing less swiftly.
And, to reassure Janus, I’m almost certain that the war between JW and myself will all be over by Christmas, probably the one in 2010.
Boadicea's Chariot 
JM, pretty lousy bowling, in my opinion. You are meant to get close to the leetle white ball. Time’s winged chariot? Balderdash and bolleaux! If you hurry you’ll catch cold. Btw, did you hear about the tortoise who was set upon by snails? In his police statement he said he couldn’t be much help; it had all happened so fast.
I don’t think my quiz is difficult – but it always surprises me which ‘faces’ cause problems!
Hi, Janus. I see you know as much about lawn bowls as you do about ‘Battleships’.
The score was 19-18 on a tricky and bumpy end of season rink with a wind blowing from right to left. The red and green sticker bowler (RH) was playing his backhand. His first bowl (jack high left) ended just beside the jack. Red sticker (LH, also playing backhand) was short and tight with his first attempt. RG applied conventional wisdom and put bottom left behind the jack to guard against a drive. Cunning R, however, played a pretty good shot which cannoned off the jack -high bowl into the jack itself, moving it to the right and bringing his own short bowl into play to lie 2 and game.
RG tried to draw to the new position of the jack and got the line right but he was a wee bit heavy and a gust of wind did not help his cause. R, realising that RG could now take the jack through to lie 3 and game, played possibly the best shot of the end, in my opinion, putting in an almost perfect blocker against a possible drive. That’ll be the very short one.
RG tried to draw again but the pressure was on and he left it short, meaning R did not have to deliver his last bowl and hands were shaken.
In other words, you really had to be there, it was all a bit tense and tactical and have you ever played the game yourself, by the way?
AS you see, I can be boring about sports other than ‘Battleships.’
JM, yes 🙂
Fine that, Janus. So you’ll know that the aim is not always just to get ‘close to the leetle white ball’, then.
In fairness, it wasn’t the best head of the game, and it was the shadows that I took the photo for, in all honesty.
Brown shoes and grey trousers. Disgraceful! 🙂
Hi JM. I don’t know a great deal about bowls, I see them playing here on the sea front, and have always admired the chap who looks after the lawns..or are they called ‘greens’? They look like snooker tables, so smooth and level. The ladies and gents who play always wear white, they too look nice; that’s my limited knowledge of bowling. I do see them carrying their balls in those little leather cases; oops, sorry, are they called Woods? Why are they called Woods, are they made of wood?
I suppose our lot will now go indoors.
Val, so many questions! Yes, yes and yes. 🙂
Looks like a pretty good head to me John, what do these foreign Johnnies know about the game anyway, mind you, I am biased. Mrsoldmovie and I will miss our Saturday roll ups, must say we have been thinking about indoor but our club only runs a short mat so we are still undecided.
Hm, anteroom to God?
Marginally better than harps I suppose.
Hi, tocino. Good to see you made it home safely.
I feel your pain, buts them’s the rules. Up until about 15 years ago, all Scottish Bowling Association clubs had to wear grey trousers and white shirts in all intra-club competitions. Brown was the only colour allowed for the shoes which must, of course, have completely flat soles. We can now wear club colours and brown, grey or even black shoes. Hardly anybody does wear black and I have never seen a pair of black ones for sale.
When I first started playing, I was told that it helped to remind people to change out of their street shoes to avoid damaging the green or bringing infections on to the grass.
In England, as I understand it, they wear either whites or greys for Club matches so white shoes are a lot more common down there. We are only supposed to wear white shoes if we have competed at County, National Final or International level. One day!
valzone, good evening.
Please ignore Janus. He knows little of the game, in my opinion.
The correct answers are Yes to ‘greens’, Yes to ‘woods’ and No to being made of wood. They used to be, which is why they are still called that, but now they are overwhelmingly made of a composite material called Henselite which was developed by the Aussies. Bowls are illegal in competitive play unless they are measured and stamped at regular intervals to certify that they are of the same weight, size and bias so I doubt very much if there are any ‘legal’ wooden woods left in play today.
Hi, omg.
I’ve never tried short mat. We are lucky enough in Embra to have six full-sized indoor bowling greens within half an hour’s drive at maximum. Nice bias joke, by the way.
Hi John, thanks, I know a little more.
Sorry John, I meant to say, I know a little more now.
Fair enough, CO.
Next summer, I’ll try to post pictures of our hanging baskets and our flower beds. We all love our lawn above all else, of course and lavish most attention on that, but we have quite a few dedicated gardeners in the membership who spend a lot of time and effort on the surroundings to the green as well.
Good evening, Mr. Mackie. I am amazed that your outdoor year is already over. It’s still September, for Heaven’s sake and was a gin-clear, bright blue 28ºC over here this afternoon, but I suppose if you choose to live that far north it’s probably going to be dark and dreek until the end of next May at the very least, which explains a lot about the McPsyche come to think of it.
Allow me please to brighten your day, pari passu, E&OE and all that.
http://www.google.pt/search?q=bowling+holidays+portugal&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a
You may play in summer slacks and a short-sleeved shirt (your own dress code permitting, obviously) in January if you so wish, but hats are recommended for the, ahem, follicularly-challenged as the sun can be a bit hot. However, shorts and sandals with the black socks you wear with your suit are a definite no-no. 🙂
OZ
John, do you think OZ means, dreich? He’ll be talking about locks next and whiskey…
CWJ – ‘Dreek’ is an acceptable spelling according to my English dictionary. I would never speak of ‘locks’ apart from when on the Weaver Navigational Canal nor of ‘whiskey’ unless I was either bogtrotting or in Japan.
😉
OZ
JM,
Many thank’s for your explanation. about the brown shoes. I had no doubts whatsoever that that you would understand what I was on about. 🙂
I have put up a a few pic’s of my holiday elsewhere on this site,
Did you have a game when you were here?
Of course they Play 12 months of the year down here, no need for those indoor tracks.
JM, “Please ignore Janus. He knows little of the game, in my opinion”. I played when woods were wood and so were warships! 🙂
PS my caption post was just for non-EU residents!