A slip of the tongue

Yet another tweak has been added to the preparation routine before the launching a bowl... a quick lick of the index finger. Any more tweaks and I'll be in danger of disqualification for time wasting.

After a rain filled morning I thought this afternoon's roll up might be cancelled. But no, there were seven other trusty club members all ready to go. Perfect! Enough for two games of pairs and all four bowls in use.

The first half of the session was interrupted a couple of times by a shower. I found after a wipe with a cloth the moisture on the bowl meant there was much more grip, and although the green was heavy it seemed easy to get the right length.

About an hour later things warmed up. Bit of a problem since the bowls were now quite slippy. Hmmm... if moisture had made such a difference earlier, what would a bit of good old spit do now? Quite a lot actually... I had my best ever bowls session, with one opponent commenting that if I kept playing like that they'd have me in the A team soon!

Still had the odd bowl going far too wide. Embarrassingly, one already far too wide shot not only rolled into the next rink, but over the far side of that rink... wrong bias again! So the preparation routine now involves...

1. Make sure it is my turn

2. Make sure I pick up my bowl, and not an opponent's

3. Get the bias on the correct side

4. Lick index finger

5. Place index finger along inner grip ring

6. Select line

7. Get into position

8. Check line of bowl

9. Consider length to roll

10. Launch bowl

Of course the latest tweak has to be carried out under cover, otherwise, as I hopefully improve, I'm in danger of being nicknamed Kentucky Fried Chicken... being finger licking good. I'll know my trick has been spotted when opponents hesitate to shake my hand. Maybe I should get some of that gripper wax they sell at the club.