Indoor bowls: Growing numbers the legacy

Toby Hayward from Tauriko School follows his bowl's progress at the AIMS Games indoor bowls competition at ASB Arena. Photo / John Borren

AIMS Games could boost niche sports

A lot of AIMS Games coverage generally either focuses on the benefits to the city or the enjoyment of the kids, but the Games' greatest legacy may one day lie in the development of the sports themselves.

The Games, with its 12 sports bringing more than 7500 kids from all around the country to town for a week, provides the critical mass for niche sports to develop, attracting youngsters not suited or interested in the mainstream sports.

The benefits for those sports in the Bay of Plenty are even more pronounced, with a number of regional and national sporting bodies employing development staff whose focus is to grow the sports in the Bay before rolling out the initiatives nationwide.

BayTrust CoachForce development manager Delwyn Cooper is one such example.

Her work in developing the game at the junior level has led to more than a 50 per cent jump in players this year, boosting numbers from last year's 72 to this year's total of 110.

Some of that increase can be attributed to schools such as Pongakawa and Te Puna taking part for the first time, leading to a tournament to include 395 matches over four days that will likely shift to the QEYC due to logistics next year.

Indoor bowls administrator and Tauranga representative Alison Cowan said the AIMS Games effect was in full force inside ASB Arena. "It's been absolutely tremendous - especially in this area," she said.

"We were lucky enough to have a person appointed by New Zealand Indoor Bowls, Craig Whiteside, who pushed bowls in schools in this area.

"I guess it's a bit of a model to take off around New Zealand."

This is the fourth year that indoor bowls has been included, with Cowan on board for all but the first edition.

"From there it has grown tremendously to where we have 231 playing today and 30 odd schools. It is growing - the first year I did it I think we had 75 entries."

Cowan is one of a number of volunteers who take the game into schools and believes exposing youngsters to the game is beginning to change how it is perceived. "It is a thinking sport. A lot of people think it is an old person's sport but in actual fact you have to be physically and mentally fit, and you have to learn strategic play. The children seem to love that aspect."

That thinking was endorsed by the crowded scene inside ASB Arena yesterday, with entries from more than a dozen schools - including a total of 46 players from Mount Maunganui, Otumoetai and Tauranga intermediates combined - proving how far the sport has come since its inclusion.