Bowlers - improve your draw bowling by 20% for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. Robert (Bob) Tuck, the originator of getagameofbowls, has recently written a book called Lawn Bowls: The Game & How To Play It Well. You can find out more about the book from this link or read part of the chapter on getting your weight here You can buy the printed book for $24 posted or as an ebook for less than $5 on all platforms.

Find a Club Details for 1919 bowls clubs Google map & earth view Links to over 1000 web sites Club Log On List Tournaments - free List social games - free Show sponsors- free Playing & Coaching Solo Practice Routines Circuits for club practice Sourcing coaching aids Running Tournaments have fun at weekly socials 20 different games better pennant draws

GGBLOG Skins Tournaments - Six different games, all called skins Using the Mat - to get around a short bowl YouTube Coaching - 30 helpful videos, sorted by topic 2015 Rule Change - changes the way to play two shots Singles Tournaments - bowlers like this profitable 1 day singles

Getagame Gazette volume 2 no 1 June_July 2016 ARTICLES IN THIS EDITION The Great Lawn Bowls Instructional Books The Australian Open - a great event The Rise of the South Australian Men Tournament Software which does the draw and prints the cards Rule Change Unkind for The oldest and youngest pennant players The latest rule provides that when a team plays short they play 6 bowls against the opponents eight. The old law allowed the sides to play eight bowls against eight and have a deductiion of 25% from the score at the end of the game. There are two different reasons why such a rule might be needed > A. For a side at any level A player arrives late for a game due to unforeseen circumstances and the game proceeds, with that player joining the game on arrival after some ends have been played a player has to leave the game for illness or other personal reasons and it is completed without that player B.Bottom sides This is the bottom side of the club concerned and the club has no player to fill the place. It does not wish to forfeit and so it sends along its side with one or more teams playing with 3 bowlers for the whole game In both situations the laws and etiquette of bowls requires the opposing club to try to find a suitable substitute In case A either of the methods is OK, but the new Bowls Australia regulation is simpler and probably better. Garth Payne when he won a minor singles at Brighton in 1967, He is still playing pennants today at age 90. We hope to celebrate 50 years of pennant bowling with him next year.

In case B the new regulation is disastrous! It could cause super veterans like Garth Payne to retire early and potential future champions like Nathan Pederson decide that the game is not for them read on The Australian Open - A Fabulous Event The move to Gold Coast has transformed the Australian open. Last week I decided to look at the results through the Bowls Australia web site. The first item on the list was men’s single sectional play – there were 216 sections , 864 players, most of whom also played in the pairs and fours. To win the singles title you had to win 11 games The tourmament offered 18 disciplines, with over 60s, under 18 and handicaps events The IMG software allows bowlers all of Australia to watch the progress of the tournament Newly annointed Broadbeach local Chloe Stewart and her young team mates Tiffany Brodie, Amelia Bruggy and Georgia White take out the $12,000 prize! The Rise of the South Australian Men In my 20 year playing bowls there has rarely ever been a South Australian player prominent on the national stage. Wayne Ruediger emerged at the 2012 worlds, and since then the South Australian's have made finals of the Australian Premier League without imports. At the last two Australian Opens the same team of Steven Dennis, Nathan Pederson, Wayne Ruediger and Scott Thulborn has won the men’s fours, and this year Dennis and Pederson also won the pairs. What a great effort Nathan Pederson at 21 is a rising star of Australian bowls. In this tournament he was listed as being from Cabramatta, but he will always be known as a SA lad. While he never played for my club, BrightonSA, he had a long term association with it I remember him (at age 10) as the smallest player ever to play a pennant game at the club. He was playing for his first club, Rosewater, in a team which included his grandfather Bill. When he was 14 Nathan won his first prizemoney at Brighton by beating a good field of 50 in a one day open singles tournament which I organized (the photo on the right shows Nathan on that day with Lucien from Brighton). He served his apprenticeship at the club, preparing our greens for three years until he moved to Cabramatta in February 2016. Congratulations Nathan Tournament Software which does the draw and prints the cards Geoff Graham from Bateau Bay bowling club has written a great software program which is available to all bowling clubs. He shares with me a love of the game and this service, like getagamofbowls, come to you free of charge. They are spread sheet based so you can add your club and sponsor names if required click here IT HAS ARRIVED. A file designed to do away with paddle pop sticks, bingo numbers, bits of paper etc. used presently to select teams randomly. Once the names have been entered in the attached file it will select teams in your choice of Singles, Pairs, Triples or Fours and transfer the names to score cards ready for printing. From the time you enter the last players name till you have the score cards completed is less than 10 minutes and with no handwriting YouTube Coaching Directory Updated I have recently added about 15 new video clips to the Youtube Lawns bowls coaching index on the getagame site. It now includes a set of 4 one hour videos from Tony Alcock click here If you have a coaching page on your club webpage it would be sensible to add a link to this index

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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 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

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

Please make an effort to put one or more links to get a game on your web site Apart from a simple link like 'Lawn Bowls Tournaments in Australia' to the tournament listing, you can put in links to some of the other aspects of the site. The addition of the YouTube Coaching section makes the 'Learning the Game' section much more valuable to all of your members, not only your coaches, and there is no better way to 'find a club' than to use the getagame link. You can also put a link in your page to the weekly social games at your club like this one for Chatswood NSW Having this link would save your webmaster the work of editing the club web page whenever you alter your social games, and in most cases supply more details about your weekly socials than is currently on your web page

If you were not on the mailing list for previous newsletters you can see them from these links April 2016 Tiger Tour : Tiger Bowls in Hong Kong and China Open in Shenzhen On Line Bowls Magazines The Role of Skipper: articles by Cameron Curtis and Tony Alcock A snapshot of the sport of bowls in Australia The History of Lawn Bowls and its equipment February2016 Bushfire disaster hits two clubss The Shooter Stance - great for many bowlers and a helpful for dumpers An IMG report can show who has qualified for finals A monthly television show on bowls December 2015 Mainstream Media Under-rates Lawn Bowls The New Order in Lawn Bowls Six new Games for Team Practise How to Put the Stickers on Your Bowls The Mathematics Of Narrow Bowls October 2015 2015 Rule Change Altered Two Shots Gambling Spreads to Lawn Bowls Injuries from Lawn Bowls Profitable Singles Tournaments When did bowlers start running down the green? August 2015 A Politician's View of Lawn Bowls How do you use the width of the mat to get around a bowl Lawn Bowls and YouTube - 30 coaching videos indexed June 2015 What is a Skins Tournament The health benefits of Bowls Did Crackerjack Change the Bias of Australians About Lawn Bowls?