New world ranking event introduced

The World Bowls Tour is pleased to announce a brand new and exciting world ranking event with a different concept.

The UK Open in association with LEAN2SUCCEED will take place at the very popular Stanley IBC from Thursday, March 31 – Saturday, April 2.  

This event will be streamed by Optical Media live to the WBT Facebook and YouTube platforms.

Thirty-two players will compete for the title, the draw will be filled by the Top 16 players from the WBT ranking list and 16 qualifiers.

So, what’s new? On completion of the first round matches, a fresh live draw will be made to determine who plays whom all the way up to the grand final.

Also, this year, on top of having the normal show rink, three of the outer rinks will be used at the same time – a bit like snooker.

“This means we will be taking a huge number of qualifiers through from the PBA qualifiers, this is the best chance a PBA members will have had to get into a world ranking event in many years,” said WBT director Jason Parkinson.

He continued: “There will be no shot clock in operation for the duration of this event. Players will also be allowed to wear their own bowls shirt. This will allow the players to have their own identify for a change (shirt designs to be approved, of course). Players will also be allowed to use their own bowls providing they are not blue, blue bowls on a blue carpet will be extremely hard to see for the spectators/viewers on the rinks.”

The UK qualifiers will also take place at the Stanley IBC from Monday, March 28 – Wednesday, March 30, with up to 16 qualifiers going through. Should the event be oversubscribed to run the qualifiers solely at Stanley IBC, an additional venue in the North East will be used on Monday, March 28, and Tuesday, March 29.

Entry into the qualifiers cost £25 and can be arranged via the PBA website.