YourViews Send us your views on the game and the best letter will win an amazing Taylor Bowls bag Shock at ‘Top 25, Under 25’ omission
I may be as biased as my bowls but I cannot believe you can have an under-25 top 25 (issue 23) that doesn’t include every under-25 national champ who is still under the age of 25. Or, for that matter, every under-25 who has won a British Under-25 title! My son, Stuart Holland, has beaten Sam Tolchard, Mervyn King and Simon Skelton quite easily! They have never beaten him, nor have any of your list, at least from England. However, his face doesn't fit so, even after his best ever England trial, he gets dropped. None of the England team, except Dave Hubbard maybe, can beat him and yet, when the international is to be played in his county, there is no place for him! Feel free to check his record and compare for yourself. Your magazine certainly reflects bowls alright - you, too, are blinkered.
S Holland Snr, via email
Sorry you feel that way, Mr. Holland. I don’t agree that we are in any way ‘blinkered’. On the contrary, I can assure you that our reporting is absolutely and strictly without bias. Your son certainly has a fantastic record. However, the same could be said of a number of players who narrowly failed to make our final list, not to mention the players that did. Of course, everybody is entitled to their opinion on these matters. At the end of the day, that is essentially what lists like these are based upon - opinions. Your son is lucky to have somebody like you in his corner supporting him, all the same, and best of luck to him. A talented young bowler, I’m sure he has a very bright future in the game, indeed.
Clubs must look to secure future
I am very concerned at the lack of interest by many participants in our sport to realise that, unless we all actively change our attitude to encourage younger members to play bowls of all types, the rapid decline will continue and the number of clubs diminish. It is hard work getting new members and the recent Open
Day, ‘Bowls 4 Free’ and ‘Have Mat Will Travel’ events proposed by the Bowls Development Alliance should have given clubs the incentive to take advantage and get involved locally. How many did so?
Whilst I can only report on my own local knowledge of how this has been followed up by clubs, the effort put in by many seems to be very poor to nil according to verbal reports I have received from fellow coaches. We know that bowls is regarded as an ‘old man’s game’, a fact often highlighted by adverts shown on the TV. But why do we accept this distorted view of our sport?
As already stated, it is hard work recruiting new members, often due to reticence from ones, own members who fear that their own involvement will be affected by having fewer matches in which to play. They invariably forget that all clubs lose older members and, unless these are replaced together with additional members, the inevitable will occur with reduction in the club’s finances and viability. Obviously, a well-thought out and structured plan needs to be implemented to take care of this and, when the BDA and EBCS get themselves sorted out, we may all see a brighter future. But why wait until this happens? If clubs want to survive, they must act now and take advantage of numerous avenues of support that are available if you look for them. It is only by having the will to improve that our sport will endure for many years to come.
Stuart Holland Time for some Olympic Games action
Michael McEwan hit the nail on the head in the last edition of the magazine (issue 23) when he said that Olympic inclusion is vital to bowls’ long-term future. However, it seems that the only thing anybody does to this effect is wax lyrical and pontificate. Empty rhetoric never achieved anything, which is why it is vitally important that the leading bodies, all of them, get around the table and develop a clear and structured proposal to take to the IOC in order to prove bowls’ legitimacy and worth as a candidate for the Olympics. Actions, as ever, speak louder than words.
G. Lloyd, via email
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Come on you bowlers, wake up and get things moving! These are my own personal views but I believe many of my own club members and many more from other clubs share them with me.
J. Ranger, Kent
Couldn’t agree more. It still amazes me some clubs are so resistant to encouraging juniors. There are a lot of people involved in the governance of clubs who are concerned only about what they can get out of their club, and only for as long as they are a member. There seems to be little interest in creating any kind of long-term future or legacy. People with these attitudes, not that they are bothered, are killing clubs. Bowls should be a sport for all, played by all and enjoyed by all.
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