BOWLS New Zealand have a busy, two-year international programme ahead, with a Tauranga man at the helm of the organisation.
Mike Spring was elected national president for the next two years at the Bowls New Zealand AGM last Saturday.
He had previously served two years as national vice-president, plus threeyears as president of both Matua and Bay of Plenty Bowls.
He said being elected national president was undoubtedly the highlight of his time in bowls administration.
"We have the Asia Pacifics being hosted in New Zealand in a couple of months' time in November, the transtasman, Six Nations in March and then, in November next year, we have 20 nations competing here in World Bowls. That is all happening on my watch. Brilliant. It really is exciting."
Spring is heartened by the healthy state bowls is in, particularly with the continued trend for younger players to take up the sport.
"We actually have more participants than rugby. It is very positive. In one of the semifinals of the national open championships last Christmas, one of the women's teams of four had a total age of 88, with one 29-year-old in the team," Spring said.
"There has been a big schools programme on. A lot of the kids start off by referral from parents and grandparents and take it up from there. We just had Ashley Jeffcoat, from Raglan, winning gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa and she is only 16.
"Locally, bowls is in a good place but you have to keep working it. Like all other sports now, membership is a struggle. People have so many other things to do now. Casual participants, like twilight bowlers and business house, are a huge part of bowls now and outnumber our membership bowlers by two to one."
Spring wants to leave bowls in better shape than he found it, which he admits is a big call.
"It means we have to continually work at change, and encourage clubs to change and centres to change.
"Bowls is run by people who are pretty set in their ways so it is not an easy move, but we have been pushing the message out there for eight years now that we need to adapt to society.
