REDNALL’S REVIEW | “Shortening formats is not a way of making bowls more exciting and appealing”
In his latest column for Bowls International, England’s most-capped international John Rednall shares his views on the ‘vocal assumption’ that shortening formats will make our sport more exciting and appealing.
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I was lucky enough to watch the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bowls from the stands, amongst hundreds of Australians who had never spectated bowls before. They shouted patriotically for the Jackaroos, not really knowing the rules or procedures. They cheered, swilled their lager, and fervently fell in love with a sport that they were only encountering because the ballot had given them tickets for lawn bowls.
Yet, they could not wait to have a go, themselves and when the opportunities arose to attend the barefoot sessions after the Games, there they were, trying it for themselves.
This is another example of why we should make the very best of a Commonwealth Games on home soil. If we are to change our sport for the better, we will not do it by axing specific formats in place of alternatives. We will enhance it by offering more variety.
This brings me onto the highly annoying and very vocal assumption that making bowls matches shorter will suddenly swell the numbers of people coming into our sport. It is simply naïve to think so. It’s poppycock.
Those of us who play bowls because we love to, enjoy being out on the green in all weathers; we enjoy the challenge of singles, pairs, triples and fours, short games, long games, home games, away games, sets play and traditional formats. Those who want to shorten formats and axe the long 21 end games in John’s Trophy, Middleton Cup, Walker Cup and Balcomb Trophy will simply drive the traditionalists away from the sport.
Shortening formats is not a way of making the game more exciting and appealing, it’s just a way of making the result, a win or a loss occur more quickly.
The implied message by reducing ends is that we do not enjoy bowling and can’t wait to get home, or into the bar! The same people want to reduce the numbers of players in a team, ironically in an age when we are trying to grow the sport and reduce the number of bowls we play with.
Why shorten the things we enjoy? Will football matches be shortened to 80 minutes and seven aside? Will they be more exciting? Or how about we limit dart players to two darts each? Surely that will enhance the sport. I think not.
There was very good reason as to why Bowls England reduced formats and numbers of bowls last year. I am not criticising them in any way. It was a heroic act to stage the BE National Championships and shorter games meant that more games could be played each day. But alas, the trend of reducing ends and numbers of bowls has crept in, on the world stage.
When I played for England in the 1994 Commonwealth Games fours, my partners, Roy Cutts, Wynne Richards and John Bell and I played in Section B, along with nine other countries. We played, and revelled in full 21 end games and the top two countries qualified for the medal play offs. Incidentally, we won six, drew one and lost two, finishing third and just out of the medals.
In the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the triples format was limited ends and only two bowls each and fewer games in the group. It was a great spectacle and exciting, but not as a result of limited ends and two bowls instead of three.
And, music was constantly played through the speakers which made it hard for front end players to hear their skips and probably didn’t aid concentration. But, I’m told, it enhanced the atmosphere!
So where has this fascination for shortening come from, along with its claim that games will be more exciting and newcomers to the sport will flood through the gate of every bowls club?
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