Organisation of national bowls draws praise

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 30

Organisation of national bowls draws praise

Australia has a lot to learn from New Zealand in the running of major bowls tournaments, according to a prominent Australian player who contested the Rothmans New Zealand championships which ended in Christchurch on Sunday. Errol Bungey, of the Grange club in Adelaide, together with his son, Drew, made the tournament something of a bowls holiday. It was the second time that Errol Bungey has come to Christchurch to play bowls.

The first occasion was in 1974 when he was a member of the Australian four which took the silver medal in the Commonwealth Games of that year. He also represented Australia at the world bowls in England in 1972 and the Commonwealth Games at Edmonton in 1978, but was placed at neither. Bungey, aged 54, does not play in major Australian tournaments any more, mainly because of his job as a sales representative, but he is still obviously a class player. He qualified and lasted three rounds of post-section play in the singles; with Drew, aged 23, he reached the last eight in the pairs; and with two Chch players,

Jeff Lenz and Tony Thomas, making up his team, Bungey qualified in the fours.

The latter was no easy task as he was in a tough section and had to beat Morgan Moffat (South Brighton) on the final section day to stay in the race. This he did. 21-19.

Bungey liked everything he saw about the tournament “It is a great concept and it is no wonder that the players keep coming back every year, it is wonderful sporting and social occasion.”

The Christchurch greens — “I have never seen a bad one” — appealed greatly to Bungey, and he thought the section system (which was introduced for the singles and pairs for the first time this season) had a lot to recommend it.

“In Australia you can travel 3000 miles to a national championship and get only one game of singles and one of pairs. Here you are guaranteed eight games and this justifies the costs.” It is not just in its national tournament that Bungey believes New Zealand is way ahead of Australia in running bowls. “For the professional there is far more money to be won in New Zealand. We

don’t seem able to attract the sponsorship that is available here and the administration in New Zealand is far more attuned to the times.”

It was, said Bungey, sound selection policies which had enabled New Zealand to develop worldclass players like Peter Beiliss, Morgan Moffat and lan Dickison, and he was also impressed by the number of talented younger players he had seen during the tournament.

“Our national team is changing all the time and what can you expect when it is selected by a committee of state presidents, who in most cases are no more than fourth division club players themselves. “Making Kerry Clark, a man who knows what top bowls is all about, manager of the New Zealand team for five years was a brilliant move, and the dividends are obvious. Unfortunately in Australia we are still living in a bygone era in the running of bowls. I just hope our administrators take note of what is happening in New Zealand and heed the lessons,” he said. KEVIN McMENAMIN