Bowls: Changing times take toll on year's big event

Christchurch's Jo Edwards. Photo / APN

For the national lawn bowls championships, beginning in Auckland next Wednesday, it's not a question of who of the country's elite bowlers are attending but rather who isn't.

New Zealand's two best women's bowlers, multiple world champions Val Smith and Jo Edwards, plus Jan Khan, won't be there; neither will last year's men's singles champion, Shaun Scott, and another national representative, Tony Grantham.

This is a reflection of some of the socio-economic changes, most outside the sport's control, which have affected bowls in recent years.

Once among the traditional sporting highlights of the Christmas-New Year holiday period, the nationals were such an essential part of the sporting fabric they even entered the consciousness of non-bowlers.

Many will recall with nostalgia the colourful radio broadcasts of firstly Ian Birch in the 1970s and then, more recently, those of Stu Scott.

But because of many factors, mainly changed employment conditions, soaring travel and accommodation costs, and the fact that even top players are essentially amateurs, entries have declined markedly from the peak years of the 1970s.

This season, only a handful will come from outside Auckland or its neighbouring areas.

This follows a pattern - whenever the championships are held in Dunedin or Christchurch, there are few entries from the North.

Bowls New Zealand will conduct its usual review and survey of its members at the end of the championships, and while there appear to be no immediate plans for changes, it must be wondered how long the present format and timing can survive.

But, despite the absentees, there will still be many quality bowlers competing in the three disciplines.

The great Gary Lawson, for instance, is one of the few South Islanders who will be in Auckland, even if he is teaming up with Auckland's Chris Le Lievre in the pairs and with Le Lievre, another Aucklander Danny Delany and Australia-based Aucklander Richard Girvan in the fours.

And Wellington's Rob Ashton and Kapiti's Ray Boffa will return to try to regain the pairs title they won when the championships were last held in Auckland, three years ago.

Other former national champions or representatives who will be competing include Jamie Hill, Ross Haresnape, Shannon McIlroy, Petar Sain, Matt Gallop and Shayne Sincock in the men's events and Clare McCaul, Anne Bateman, Ann Muir, Angela and Mandy Boyd, Leanne Curry, Jo Babich, Bev Crowe and Reen Stratford in the women's.

The championships, with the Carlton-Cornwall club the headquarters, will start on Auckland and North Harbour greens on Wednesday with the women's singles qualifying and the men's pairs.

Women's pairs start on Thursday and the men's singles on Friday.

Singles and pairs finals will be on January 4. The fours will start on January 5 and finish with both finals on January 9.

The men's fours, in particular, could be a highlight.

As just one example, there will be a star-studded cast in the same sections at the Takapuna club, where Lawson's powerhouse combination will be competing alongside similarly strong composites skipped by McIlroy, Ashton, Sain and Wellington's Lou Newman.