Rubber Match Origin Definition

The sporting term rubber match refers to the final and deciding game in any series and traces its origins back to the 16th century english game of lawn bowling.

Rubber match origin definition. Rubber match posted by bruce kahl on september 11 2003. Posted by henry on september 11 2003. In sports where 2 wins out of 3 games wins the match and after 2 games where each team has won one match the third and decisive game is referred to as the rubber match. A rubber match or rubber game is a match where the winner of that match wins the series.

Somewhat similar to bocce ball the object of lawn bowling is to roll wooden balls across a flat field toward a smaller white ball so they stop as close as possible to the smaller. Rubber match plural rubber matches a sporting event at the end of a series in which the opponents are tied in terms of events won and lost. In a three game series tied at one game a piece the third match is the rubber match. Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches.

The final and deciding game between two tied teams opponents. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series other than the total number of matches won and lost.