Bowls Management

The Bowls management committee and staff of Bowls WA must be congratulated on steering through such a crazy time. Abandoned games of bowls due to inclement weather, multiple lock downs from Covid, requiring rescheduling of games and fixtures. The Bowls management committee is where all the committees that keep bowls in WA running join as one. Umpires Committee – The rules of the game and the all the great volunteer umpires. They have been very busy running extra umpires and marking courses all over WA. Fixtures & Events committee, Greens & Infrastructure, Country committee, High Performance & Coaching have all undertaken major projects this year. The Bowls Blitz for the high performance players, juniors and development squad has been highly praised as a great innovation for the sport. Another area is the Innovations Committee that was created by the Bowls WA Board with the main principle for the Committee was to ensure the sustainability of the sport at both Club and Association level. Since the mid-1980s the primary form of the game in WA, pennant bowls, has continued to decline year on year. Other sports, such as cricket, have recognised that traditional forms of their game have similarly diminished, but have acted to develop alternatives in order to maintain membership numbers. The main purpose of the Innovations Committee was to review the current structures and formats of the game in this

State. Some of the key issues identified included, Declining Membership/Participation, Byes/ Forfeits in lower divisions, format and structure of games Heat / Weather impacts, Condensed/Busy calendar and new competitions. Part of the process was to survey players and Marc Abonnel potential players in three different categories: Existing players, social bowlers and nonbowlers. Tailoring questions of each of the three target groups. The intent of the survey was to collect views on the current structures and formats of the game and to test the suitability of this into the future. While the views of the existing players are valuable to the current situation, it is the views of the social and non-bowlers that provide guidance as to the direction the game of bowls should take into the future. A total of 1753 responses were received, equating to about 10% of the current playing membership. The outcomes and recommendations from this survey are currently being reviewed and assessed by the various committees and board. Thanking all the volunteers and staff for their dedication, commitment and continued support. The future of Bowls looks very bright and promising.

Marc Abonnell

BOWLS MANAGEMENT