Federation Rules in a nutshell

Post date: Jan 18, 2018 2:50:20 PM

AS SOME members of Stamford IBC involved in Northants Men's and Women's Bowling Federation indoor competitions this month are discovering, players must adhere to the subtle changes in Rules - compared to those laid down in our regular leagues and competitions by the English Indoor Bowling Association.

In a nutshell, here are a handful to be aware of:

* At the moment of delivering jack or bowl, a player shall have one foot ENTIRELY WITHIN the confines of the mat - either on or above the mat (EIBA Rules demand only part of a foot). See footnote for the Rule in full.

*Games must start with the mat no more than two metres from the ditch on the centre line. From then on the mat must be placed no more than four metres from the ditch.

*No 'Touchers' are identified with chalk or nominated! Any bowl in the ditch is declared 'dead' even if it strikes the jack on its original path. But if driven or deflected into the ditch within the confines of the rink, the jack is still 'live'.

*A bowl or jack coming to rest touching or dissecting the side confines of the rink is declared out of play. If a jack is driven or deflected out of play to the side, the end MUST be replayed in the same direction (club and Lincs IBA rules allow for the Jack to replaced on the re-spot and for play to continue).

*No bowl further than two metres from the jack when an end is completed will count.

*A 'rink' of players is two or three-bowl triples. In pairs, players have two bowls only.

*Players may change positions in pairs or rinks at any time before the jack is re-set on completion of an end.

*Only skips may visit 'the head'.

*The jack shall be delivered until it is legally set, regardless of how many attempts it takes.

FOOTNOTE: The EBF foot-fault Rules reads as follows: "The player at the moment of delivering the jack or his bowl shall have one foot entirely within the confines of the mat; the foot may be either in contact with, or over, the mat. Failure to observe this law constitutes "foot-faulting".

"Should a player infringe the law of foot-faulting, an umpire may, after having given a warning, have any further bowls delivered while foot-faulting stopped and declared dead. If the bowl has disturbed the head, the opponent shall have the option of either resetting the head, leaving the head as altered, or declaring it to be a dead end.