Outside Agendas Cause District Calendar Chaos

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday June 27, 2007

John Gilmour - On the kitty

NEWCASTLE District Bowling Association may have to look at playing championships at night or midweek if state and national events continue to encroach on its playing calender.

The Newcastle district triples championship is the latest event to suffer from clashes.

The opening round on Saturday was postponed because of the Queensland Open, which starts on Sunday.

Bowls Australia has sanctioned the Queensland Open as a grand prix event to hold order of preference over the Newcastle triples championship.

It left the NDBA with no choice but to put their title on hold because some players from within its district are entered in both events.

All associations in Australia are in the same boat as the NDBA, but it is the largest zone of the 16 within NSW and therefore feels it more.

The NDBA already has a busy program, with pennants, district championships, Mattara and representatives matches to be slotted in.

There is little margin for washouts, meaning any other disruptions exacerbate the problem.

But each season there seems to be more and more national and state events being added to the calendar.

The postponement of the Newcastle district triples championships has had a domino effect, as the Newcastle district major singles title has had to be rescheduled too.

However, the deadline to have these events finalised in order for winners to qualify for the state play-offs has not been put back.

Club championships, which need to be finished in time to allow winners to progress to zone and then state champions of champions events, also have been caught up in the traffic jam.

The NDBA could have played hardball and forced players involved in both events to play in the opening rounds of the triples on Saturday and then head to Brisbane on Saturday night.

That way only a handful, rather than the majority, of players in the Newcastle district would have been affected.

If events like the Queensland Open are only going to take five days to complete, why don't Bowls Australia insist that they start on Monday and finish Friday to ensure minimal disruptions elsewhere?

That way only the players the larger associations seem to be pandering to will be put out, and not the majority that keep them going.