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24 BOWLS DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (BDA)
BOWLS DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (BDA)
IS THE ESMBA WITHDRAWAL
IS THE ESMBA WITHDRAWAL
SHORTSIGHTED?
SHORTSIGHTED?
The BDA was set up as an umbrella organisation for bowls bringing together
Flat Green (indoor and outdoor), Crown Green and Short Mat and is recognised by Sport Eng-
land as the body to drive the development of the sport of bowls across the whole country)
The “ESMBA Press Notice” that was published in the last issue of SMI (Winter) announc-
ing their withdrawal from the above organisation, first appeared on the ESMBA website in No-
vember 2012. The original decision was however taken last summer at the July 2012 seminar
when only 1 of our 2 BDA representatives was present. After some re-consideration the deci-
sion was then ratified at their September committee meeting.
The ESMBA had been involved with the BDA from its inception in 2009 and had 2 ESMBA
committee members on the BDA board to represent the Short Mat side of the game. They
recognised that such a body was necessary to attract government funding from the Sports
Council to further the development of the sport as a whole and they had promoted the work of
the BDA right up to last year’s AGM when our Chairman in his annual report was still encour-
aging members to support the BDA and take advantage of the facilities they offered. The sud-
den U turn was therefore surprising to say the least especially as member counties were never
given an opportunity to express their views.
The task for the BDA was never going to be a short term one with quick and easy results.
The initial funding from Sport England was £750,000 (for 2009-2013) and during this formative
4 years the BDA have very successfully used this money to set up an infrastructure and de-
velop initiatives with the simple prime purpose of attracting more people into the sport of bowls
(all varieties). They were additionally tasked with developing a unified coaching framework for
the sport and have appointed their own Coaching Manager to progress this objective. These
first 4 years have laid a solid foundation as a result of which they have recently been successful
in securing a further sum of £2 million to build on and develop their work during the next 4
years (2013-2017). Of course you get nothing for nothing in this world and each of the BDA
bowls partners (NGBs) also has to make a contribution. It is true that the cost of remaining in
the Alliance was not peanuts but to put the amount required into perspective, it would have
cost members less than £0.50p per year each.
The North Yorkshire Association feels that this price would have been well worth paying
and the reasons are simple. The ESMBA has seen a gradual but substantial drop in national
membership (down 20% from 26,000 to 21,000) over recent years which represents a drop in
annual income of over £15,000. Even so, they have failed to come up with any successful ini-
tiatives to reverse this trend. Indeed only 8 member counties out of 36 showed an increase in
numbers in 2012/13 and over the last 2 years no one has even come forward to serve as
Membership Secretary. The ESMBA coaching system, after being established by Barry
Hedges in 2008, seems to have ground to a halt and has also failed to attract someone to
take on the post of Coaching Director. Moreover, we have seen that over the last few years,
the committee have been actively trying to find ways of off-loading much of their administrative
work to a third party.
So why turn our backs on the one body that could help take some on the potential load
off our already hard pressed committee? The ESMBA Press Notice informs us that great
hopes are now to be pinned on a new body – the Association of Bowling Codes (ABC) – “a
newly formed association that intends to promote the sport at an affordable and amicable
level”. Although we have not been told how much membership of this new body will cost or
who is running it, the Press Notice states that it will “advise on coaching matters”, “identify
good practice”, “advise on…..safeguarding matters” and “identify funding opportunities”. No-
ticeably absent is any reference to increasing membership.