January 30, 2012

A win for BowlsWA when they got it right in abandoning the 11th round of pennant fixtures. Never before to my knowledge has a round of pennant fixtures been cancelled 26 hours before the scheduled start time in W.A. However it was never about winning anything as far as BowlsWA were concerned, what was more important to them was the duty of care they are compelled to take into account for bowlers.

It was a risky strategy having witnessed how often the weather forecasters have got it wrong in the past, which included the forecasters being wrong with their weather prediction on the Friday.

Last season was a good example of how often they got it wrong, so much so the new board immediately set about remedying the situation to great effect this season by having players turn up at the venue they were playing at and leave it to the umpire of the day to make a ruling if required .

The decision to abandon the fixtures was looking a tad shaky after the forecast for Friday was incorrect and the Saturday forecast was later amended to be 38 degrees after the decision to abandon play.. Saturday was also looking like the temperature predicted would be 38* as forecast.
However once again the forcasters got it wrong and it did reach 42.1 after all proving that weather forecasting is not an exact science.

Initially I think BowlsWA would have been crossing their fingers and hoping they had made the right decision especially after the incorrect forecast on Friday, while many would have been hoping the predicted temperature would not be reached to justify their thoughts on the matter, one of which possibly would be for BowlsWA to adhere to the direction they set out in the heat rule policy, turn up and let the umpire of the day make the decision.

28/ Jan 4:00pm 38.5
28/ Jan 3:30pm 39.9
28/ Jan 3:00pm 41.9
28/ Jan 2:30pm 40.6
28/ Jan 2:00pm 40.8
28/ Jan 1:30pm 39.8

We can only wonder about the amount of abuse that would have been directed at BowlsWA had the temperature not reached 40* I shuuuuuddddder to think!

Sherro never offered an opinion on the stand taken by BowlsWA but will admit I would have said game on, turn up as normal. My thought are based purely on how often the weather bureau have got it wrong in the past and therefore let the umpire of the day make the decision.

I spoke with CEO Ken Pride who said that many bowlers would have arranged for buses to take them to various venues and this would have been money wasted once arriving only to return back to their club along with other bowlers who had to travel large distances to get to a venue and then turn around and come back home without putting a bowl down. These instances were among reasons for abandoning play for rd 11.

It is true that some of our letter writers got it wrong and would have egg on their face on this occasion, some were lucky we never got to publish their letters which was against the BowlsWA decision.
They can feel justified in writing to this site because of the amended Saturday forecast