Bowls: Players to have say on future

By GRAHAM SKELLERN

Lawn bowls players throughout the country will be given the chance to decide the future direction of the long-established national tournament which has been struck by declining entries.

Bowls New Zealand officials will hit the road in March for a series of meetings, with the format of the national championships high on their agenda.

"We have a whole host of ideas," said Bowls NZ chairman Malcolm Kidd. "We don't want to be dictatorial about this. We want to hear the opinions of the bowlers and see what the consensus view is.

"Out of it all, hopefully, we can piece something together," he said. "At the moment the national tournament is a one-way street. We are slipping in numbers.

"For the dedicated player the tournament has not lost any lustre. But the bowlers who made up the numbers - those who played for fun and for the enjoyment of being at the nationals - are just not coming any more."

Since the first national championships in Dunedin in 1914, the tournament has traditionally broken even financially, at most times making a small profit.

But the entry for the 85th men's tournament now taking place in the Bay of Plenty was way below budget, and the event was expected to lose money.

"We can't keep doing that," Kidd said. "But there will be national titles to play for."

In what form? Kidd said some ideas ranged from maintaining the national tournament but having open, unrestricted competition and on the other hand having a restriction to just club teams. At present the pairs and fours combination must come from the same centre.

Other ideas were having qualifying events in the centres or regions with the winners going through to the national final, which virtually becomes a national champion-of-champions event.

Some even want the national fours to comprise graded teams so that four top skips would be unable to play together.

"The executive would like to see the competition restored to the point where the second-tier players are fully involved," Kidd said.

One plan he fancied was splitting the national tournament in half, with the singles and pairs played over one week and then the fours at some other time during the season, making it easier for players to get away.

"We have to look at whether the Christmas holidays are still an appropriate time of the year to play the nationals with peoople having to work. We no longer have a nation that closes up for a fortnight. So there's a number of factors we have to work through."