Hello *|FNAME|*
Greetings to all members of *|CLUB|* Bowling Club
I have recently had the pleasure of joining the Tiger Tour to Hong Kong and China. While there I made contact with bowlers from 17 countries. Most of them run national open and other tournaments at which they would welcome overseas visitors. I decided to insert a section for international tours at the top of the main page of getagameofbowls. This will appear in the next couple of weeks
Before November 2017 the highest number of current tournaments ever listed on Getagame was 250. With the help of Amanda and Kevin from Bowls Therapy, who visited many clubs in SA and Victoria and sent me photos of the tournament brochures displayed, the total number of games went up to
635 on 8th January. The number has now dropped to 363 as games have been played in those states. I welcome emails from you with photos of brochures attached.
There are 832 weekly social games listed. This newsletter exists because the social game listings are permanent and I like to remind you to check that the conditions listed for those games for *|CLUB|* are still accurate.
Good Bowling
Bob Tuck
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Getagame Gazette
volume 3 no 1 March 2018
Articles In This Edition | | How Many Bowlers are there in AustraliaPromote Bowls with This Short VideoThe Bowls Clubhouse for Videos on the GameLawn Bowls Lunacy - a 10 question trivia quizAll systems go as teams confirmed for BPL07More Bowls on SBS in 2018
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How Many Bowlers are there in Australia
Morgan Poll says 545,000, Bowls Australia says 671,000
Two years ago I wrote about the numbers playing bowls in gggazette4
(Mainstream Media Under-rates Lawn Bowls)
For this edition I decided to see if the numbers had changed and I found two sourcesFrom bowls Australia their snapshot of the sport of bowls in Australia tells us that there are 671,316 participants, with 439,000 (65%) aged over 60.A new Morgan poll published on Feb 18th 2018 shows that bowls is the 13th most popular sport in Australia with 545,000 participants, Six million Australians make Swimming ‘Number 1 Sport
There are some reasons why the Morgan Poll possibly underrates Bowls.
The top few sports are recreational
"There are several other popular Australian sports with high participation levels. Jogging, marathons, athletics and track & field participation numbers are well over 4.3 million and cycling and mountain biking has nearly 3.1 million Australian participants.
The top three sports listed, swimming, athletics and mountain biking may possibly have less participants in regular competition than bowls
I believe that surveys tend to underestimate the number of older people in Australia. I have been on panels for such surveys and the top age group is usually 'over 60' This group is now larger than any 10 year grouping. This will mean that in a sample survey the number of over 60 people included will be lower than it should be - hence reducing the estimate for bowls.
Most of the sports with more participants than bowls have very large numbers of junior participants. It is hard to find figures for the total number of juniors playiong bowls but we all know it is very low - probably less than 1%. If is good that 39,000 participated in school groups.
The figures shown are encouraging for those organizing the sport, since the number playing social is still increasing faster than the number of club members is decreasing. However some changes in the way the game is organized may help in converting social players into club members
Perhaps we should
Shorten the games - over two hours is not acceptable for the modern 40-60 year olds
Offer pennant games in formats other than fours
My club recently organized a 'pro-am' night where two regular pennant players were placed in teams with two 'night owl' players. I played with two fortysomethings who were very talented and love their weekly game, but have good family reasons why they could not join pennant bowls for at least another ten years. Both indicated that a two hour pennant game on Friday nights would interest them.
The older bowls community have to accept that bowls is 'A game for all ages, mostly played by older people, but played better by younger participants' and be thankful that our fast Australian greens allow us to keep playing the game we love
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Promote Bowls with This Short Video
from Bowls Canada
It is short and to the point and could be used on clubhouse displays
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The Bowls Clubhouse for videos on the game
Watch hours of archival matches and video content, as well as members-only offers, for FREE!
The Bowls Clubhouse is free to join and will revolutionise how Bowls is delivered to fans, members and participants into the future! To get full use you need to register - this is easy and free
find it here
Lawn Bowls Lunacy - a 10 question trivia quiz
from Fun Trivia
There are three ten minute trivia quizes and at least one answer all Australians will have to google!
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All systems go as teams confirmed for BPL07
The Bowls Premier League (BPL) is set to return bigger and better in 2018 for its seventh instalment across the television screens of Australia and New Zealand.
From April 23 to 26, the eight BPL licensed teams will descend on the Naenae Bowling Club in Lower Hutt, New Zealand and battle it out for the $100,000 prize pool.
Each night of the tournament will be broadcast LIVE both in Ausatralia and New Zealand via Fox Sports Australia and Sky Sport NZ respectively.
read on
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More Bowls on SBS in 2018
Some good news from Bowls Australia came in an email when this newsletter was ready to go
"The sport of bowls will enjoy increased free-to-air television coverage in 2018, with Bowls Australia and SBS today announcing the continuation of their successful partnership for a further year, with additional broadcast content."
read on
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GET A GAME OF BOWLS INFORMATION
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Each time you receive this newsletter would you
Check that all your weekly social games are listed and make sure that the information shown is still accurate. Where social games change with the season it is best to edit them when they change
Make sure that any tournaments planned by your club have been listed.
You can list your weekly social games as tournaments each week. This will give them better exposure in your state. When doing this you can show your prizemoney and sponsor if you have one. Once you have listed the first game you can list subsequent weeks with only 3 clicks. You can do this and have the games listed both as weekly social and in the list of tournaments.
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Editing and Partial Listing of Tournaments
You can now edit tournaments by going to the bottom of the entry page where it gives you a list of all tournaments previously entered by your club. You can change any of the details except the date.
If you know the date, the type of tournament and the expected prizemoney (eg Fours Men (2 day) 21st March 2018 $3000. you could partially list the game and put put something like Please reserve the dates, more details later in the special conditions box
If you also know the sponsors name and the tournament deserves state or nation featuring (usually state $2000 or more, national $5000 or more your choice) you could do this at the incomplete stage and give your sponsor much more exposure in the state and national featured lists
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Add 'Find a Club' to your Favourites
The 'find a club' section of get a game provides your quickest possible means of finding the phone number and location of any club in Australia - it is well worthwhile to have that link in your favorites
It also provides links to 995 clubs with web sites and 187 clubs which have a facebook page and no web site
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PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF GGGAZETTE |
If you were not on the mailing list for previous newsletters you can see them from these links
December 2017
Do bowling arms provide too much help?Playing the Positions (The skipper)Titles used when describing Tournaments
August 2017
Bowls in the Coff Harbour RegionPlaying the Positions (The third)Beating the Big DriverAdvertising your club or sponsor on your pages
May 2017
Singles Tournaments at ClubsPlaying the Positions (The Second)Bowls Show Has Returned Bigger and Better
March 2017
Quest for "Olympic Dream" draws closerQueensland Bowler Sets World RecordPlaying Fours :The LeadAustralian Open Entries closing 3rd April
December 2016
Would You Like to Play Bowls in China?How Do You Get The Weight?The Lawn Bowls MoviesEntering Pennant Results Accurately
August 2016
The Great Lawn Bowls Instructional BooksHow Do You Get The GreenFive games like lawnbowls you could try this summerWhch is the Most Important Shot in Lawn Bowls
July 2016
Law Change Discourages Oldest and Newest Pennant PlayersThe Australian Open - A Fabulous EventThe rise of the South Australian menA snapshot of the sport of bowls in AustraliaThe History of Lawn Bowls and its equipment
April 2016
Tiger Tour : Tiger Bowls in Hong Kong and China Open in ShenzhenOn Line Bowls MagazinesThe Role of Skipper: articles by Cameron Curtis and Tony AlcockTournament Software which does the draw and prints the cardsYouTube Coaching Directory Updated
February2016
Bushfire disaster hits two clubssThe Shooter Stance - great for many bowlers and a helpful for dumpersAn IMG report can show who has qualified for finalsA monthly television show on bowls
December 2015
Mainstream Media Under-rates Lawn BowlsThe New Order in Lawn BowlsSix new Games for Team PractiseHow to Put the Stickers on Your BowlsThe Mathematics Of Narrow Bowls
October 2015
2015 Rule Change Altered Two ShotsGambling Spreads to Lawn BowlsInjuries from Lawn BowlsProfitable Singles TournamentsWhen did bowlers start running down the green?
August 2015
A Politician's View of Lawn BowlsHow do you use the width of the mat to get around a bowlLawn Bowls and YouTube - 30 coaching videos indexed
June 2015
What is a Skins TournamentThe health benefits of BowlsDid Crackerjack Change the Bias of Australians About Lawn Bowls?
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