State Events 2009

January 27, 2009

The State events have been concluded and unfortunately I have to say that of all the blunders that have been made by BowlsWA over the years, the decision to try to emulate the success of Country week was a disaster.

The decision by BowlsWA to trial the events in close proximity of each other may well have been in part the result of a survey, but the application of the concept lacked proper planning and attention to risk management issues and has left bowlers opinion of BowlsWA administration at an all time low.

There are many angry and bewildered bowlers at the lack of proper planning and management of this years State series and one wonder if they will re-enter next year.

When the decision was made to travel this pathway it was clear that working bowlers would not be able to take part, that did not deter the decision to go ahead.
There were over 100 bowlers less taking part in this years State events. Hardly the thing bowls needs.

The original dates were to be from monday the 19th Jan to the 26th of January, This was changed to start on wednesday 21st. That move was bought about because the Ladies pennants are played on the tuesday, something overlooked in the planning stages of the State events.

Big losers in this change were players who were fortunate to have been granted time off work from their employers then having to go back to tell the boss the dates are wrong . Not a good position for either the worker or the boss.

Country Bowlers who had booked Hotel/Motel rooms and put a deposit down were in a no win situation which cost them financially

Due to the event starting later bowlers had to play up until 11.00 PM on the 25th Jan. Pity the older bowlers having to play for that period of time. Surely this is not what the game is about.

Another feature of the State events was the huge amount of time players had to wait to play their games. In my case I had to wait for David Opie to play two games of pairs, a game of triples and a game of singles before we played our game. This obviously happened to other players as well.

Bowlers who won their section or first round knockout game were told to be at Osborne Park for their follow on singles at 10.45 AM saturday morning. With a revised schedule Then thru the internet they were told to go to Yokine instead, upon arriving at Yokine they were then told to go back to Osborne Park. Thankfully it was so close to Yokine.

The Triples were switched from Dalkeith to Yokine (the pairs were being played at Yokine) at less than a day's notice. The green keeping staff at Yokine were unaware that the Triples had been switched and watered the greens that the triples were to be played on and as you can imagine they were very heavy.
Meanwhile down the road at Osborne Park they had two spare greens running at 15 seconds that might have been used.

The reason for the switch was so that players in the pairs and triples if necessary could meet in the follow on games to avoid traveling to another venue which is good reasoning but not thought of in the original schedule of play at the venues.

The anticipated crowds that were supposed to show up to watch the finals didn't show up. At best were about 200 spectators on the final day which saw only the Triples final played and catch up games

Now we find that the final of the pairs and singles are to be played next sunday at Osborne Park

Amongst all of the huge problems that confronted the Match committee because of the change of the starting date Brian Burton and Trevor Barren are to be commended for getting the nightmare that confronted them to the final stage.
Match committee chairman Brian Burton in particular who had to be at Osborne Park up till 11.00 PM at night. He doesn't get paid a cent for what he does.

Hopefully BowlsWA will abandon this format and return to the traditional way doing things. Entries were down for the State events reinforcing the fact that players cant support the event because of work commitments. Older players haven't got the stamina of the younger players to play so many games and days, one after the other.
Players do not enjoy waiting around for hours and hours to play a follow on a game.
The pairs have always been played at Xmas, it has never interfered with club programs. The singles have always been played on Australia day holiday and that has never interfered with club events. It is import for the games to follow on in an event and not have this stop start effect.

Country week works and we see the evidence of that but the circumstances for that event are vastly different to running our major State events one month after the Xmas holidays

The original thinking for changing from the normal way of running our State events as told to me from the previous CEO was that by having the three State finals played on the one green at the same time on Australia day would attract a larger audience and look good for their sponsors.

One thing is for certain Sherro will not enter any State events in future and I am not alone with this decision if they are not done in the traditional way of other seasons


SHERRO