OFFICIATING NEWSLETTER – JANUARY 24

MYTHS and MISCONCEPTIONS:

When kicking bowls back at the completion of an end,  the seconds don’t have to help because they carry the score card. Sorry but etiquette suggests we ALL should assist with kicking the bowls back, even Cinderella with her glass slippers!

UMPIRING QUESTION:
A Player walks on to the mat and without pausing delivers their bowl. Is this permitted?
The answer is NO.
The law does state that you must be standing on the mat with all or part of at least one foot on the mat:

Law 7.1. Before delivery, a player must be standing on the mat with all or part of at least one foot on the mat.    At the moment they deliver the jack or bowl, the player must have all or part of one foot on or above the mat. Law 7.3. Any player not meeting the terms of this law is committing a foot-fault and law 8 will apply.

CLARIFICATION:
In  last month’s Officiating Offerings, an umpiring question was asked – can a player change their bowls during a game? The answer given was No – BUT they may change their set because a bowl has been damaged (Law 29.3.1.1) (see Law 31) OR The game has been moved between a vegetation surface and a synthetic or indoor surface. (Law 29.3.1.2) OR The game has been stopped and is continued on another day; a player can use a different set of bowls to the set that they used during the game that was stopped. (Law 29.3.2).

For clarification, some Umpires have been confused by the statement that “you cannot change your bowls”.   You may use the other bowls in your set, but you may not change to another set of bowls. These snippets of information are going to be issued regularly by Bowls Tasmania.   If there is a topic that you would like covered, please let us know