Bowls champs set to be success

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 30

Bowls champs set to be success

The sixth world bowls championships starting at Henderson, Auckland, on Saturday, seem set to be an outstanding success according to Scotland’s Jimmy Allison, the immediate past president of the International Bowling Board. And Mr Allison can speak with some authority on the success or otherwise of major bowling events.

As well as being the vice-chairman of the organising committee of the last world championships in Aberdeen, four years ago, he was president of the 188 at the time of the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. At both events he was closely associated with the planning and execution of the tournaments.

Mr Allison the organisers of the* BNZ

world championships in Auckland have obviously learnt from mistakes made at Aberdeen and elsewhere and from what he can see, are unlikely to repeat them here.

“You have an excellent organisational structure which began planning for this event years ago; you have an outstanding facility at Henderson and you will have 23 nations competing, which is a record,” he says. “From what I can see, you have the makings of an outstanding event.”

Mr Allison says fears by local organisers that the public hasn’t responded as expected to advance ticket sales should not cause undue concern. He says Aberdeen was in the same position at the same time four years ago and yet during the final week

the tournament attracted crowds of 5000 to 7000 people. While Auckland may not be able to attract the same attendance — there is seating at Henderson for up to 5000 — he believes that once the championships get under way, the public attention will focus on the event, particularly if the New Zealand team does well.

Traditionally the host country has been among the front runners at the championships. Scotland won the Leonard Trophy — which goes to the nation with most points from the four individual competitions — edging out New Zealand narrowly at Aberdeen. While the championships at Aberdeen ran at a loss of “several thousand pounijs” Mr Allison believes these champion-

ships should, at the very least, be self-sufficient financially. “You have done considerably better than we did in attracting sponsorship and commercial support, which certainly helps.”

The last world championship cost $1.5 million to stage, while the company charged with running this event — World Bowls New Zealand (1988) Limited — is budgeting for a figure of around $l.B million.

Mr Allison, who is in Auckland to attend several meetings, believes England and Scotland will still be a force at the championships despite their late arrival. They didn’t get in until yesterday morning — only four days before the championships begin — a/jd as there will be no play on

the Henderson greens on Friday (the day before the official opening),* it will give their players only two days at most to get used to the pace of the greens.

“But that shouldn’t be such a big problem,” says Mr Allison. “Most of the British players are widely travelled. They have played in New Zealand before and it shouldn’t take them too long to adjust. “Obviously there must be some advantage to the home team which knows the pace of the greens well, but the top players all move about a lot these days and seem to settle on a length pretty quickly.” The championships start with the pairs and the triples on Saturday with the finals of the singles and fours on February 14.