SECBL President Barry Wroth unveils the new Bowlsline Laser Measure before the start of the upcoming pennants season. Photo: Greg Symes
SECBL President Barry Wroth is excited about the upcoming 2024/25 bowls season, which contains a very interesting calendar.
“The Men’s Pennants season start tomorrow, and the Ladies Pennants season starts the weekend after, however during the season we are conducting the Southern Zone Inter League Round Robin Fours,” he said.
“The League and the Esperance Bowling Club host these ILRR Fours event’s about once every six years.
“We will have over a hundred bowlers coming to Esperance in January (10-12) for the Men and February (14-16) for the Ladies.
“We had to arrange the accommodation over a year ago and we just found out that one of the providers had sold up, so there was a bit of panic to get the extra 20 beds in January for the Men’s carnival, but we have got that all organised now.”
Wroth unveiled the new Bowlsline Laser Measure which will make the umpires’ decisions at Pennants and the ILRR quicker and easier.
“It makes it very quick for the umpires to make the call of which bowl is the closest to the jack,” he said.
“It measures differences in distance accurately to 0.1 of a millimetre, replacing the old trammel and callipers, which take a long time to set up.
“The laser measure has been tested and approved for use by World Bowls Federation and Bowls Australia.”
When asked about the upcoming Men’s Pennants season, Wroth explained that the three Esperance teams had had a bit of a shakeup.
“We’ve had some teams that have had the same players for the last 10-12 years,” he said.
“The Club Match Committee put all the available names in a hat by position that they generally play and drew out all new teams for the three colours.
“It’s quite coincidental that a side that has been together for some time were all drawn out together to play again for the same colour.”
Wroth clarified that the Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe squad which had been in the competition for the last two seasons hadn’t enough players to make a team for this campaign.
“However, there are a few guys from Hopetoun that are interested in getting into the Inter League squad so these guys will be in contact with the clubs here to see if they can get a game,” he said.
“They should have no problem having a game as some sides are short throughout stages of the Pennants season for various reasons, which will give them the chance to get picked in the Inter League squad.
“The plan is to have the first half of the Men’s Pennants season completed by the start of November, so the farmers from Scaddan and Condingup are not missing bowls for harvest, and it also frees up the weekends so the clubs can run some of its championships in that time.”
Meanwhile, a local composite ladies side won the farewell fours at the annual Kalgoorlie Ladies Bowling Club’s annual spring carnival recently.
Denise Edwards, Margaret Hawkins, Coral Grant from Hopetoun, and Marilyn Jackson from the Esperance Bowling Club recorded six wins and 33 shots up.
Not to be outdone, Jayson Fiegert, Bruce Guild, Mick Colgan and Cody Browning from the Condingup Bowling Club won the Kalgoorlie Bowling Club Golden Nugget men’s carnival last week winning six out of six matches.
