Bowls: Revamp trims board, halves council

National bowls administrators yesterday moved out of their conservative shell when electing to streamline their operation.

Half the councillors representing 27 centres around the country took the unusual step of voting themselves out of office at the annual meeting of Bowls New Zealand in Wellington.

After two years of debate, Bowls NZ followed such sports as rugby, cricket and netball in restructuring. Bowls voted in a new constitution which involved slashing the number of councillors from 54 (a male and female representing each centre) to 27 (one per centre), and triming the national executive from 13 to seven.

An appointments panel will select by next May five board members, some likely to come from outside the sport, while the others will be the president and vice-president elected by the annual meeting.

The new board will not operate until after the annual meeting in September next year.

Acknowledging there was resistance from some quarters to the changes (the vote yesterday was 39-20), Bowls NZ chief executive Kerry Clark, who will retain his position, said upgrading was inevitable.

"We believed we had a structure that was unwieldy to a degree," he said. A total 54 councillors may have been acceptable a few years ago but "in this day and age it's absolutely ludicrous with the communications systems we have now and the need to make decisions with a great deal more speed than we have before."

Though the new constitution will not come into effect for 12 months, Clark said "change itself had been the most important issue." Fear of change by reducing numbers implied to some that bowlers were losing control of their sport, he said. "That's not going to happen, I can tell you quite clearly."

The meeting also revealed a surplus of almost $150,000, in contrast to last year's loss of almost $250,000.

The councillors also voted to reinstate the popular and long-established inter-centre championship, with the final to run alongside the inter-club in Palmerston North in early April.

The two leading centres from each of the Northern and Central Leagues will join the two South Island qualifiers in the six-team final.

The inter-centre was dropped last season in favour of the inaugural Super Eight regional contest which will be played in Hamilton over Easter. The national champion of champions singles and mixed pairs finals will again be held at the Arawa club in Rotorua this season. - NZPA