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SHORT MAT BOWLS - OUR DYING SPORT?
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A dramatic heading you may say? But look at the numbers. Our recorded peak in England
was in 2004 when we had 26,350 registered players and some 25 years later we have shrunk to
17,579, a reduction of 8,771 or 33% less. When I introduced the registration fee in about 1997/8,
our numbers leapt from about 10,000 to over 18,000, So we now have less registered players than
over 30 years ago,
Why you may ask? But variations happen in a lot of sports but a 35 year decline is very con-
cerning or should be to our controlling English body. I understand that Carpet bowls has also suffered
significant shrinkage. However, we are part of an incestuous sport, that is to say our governing bod-
ies are only interested in our “in-house” activities and appear to show no interest in things outside
our sport in terms of development. We are back to AJ Smith Syndrome! What! well he was the Cap-
tain of the Titanic who ignored the iceberg warnings and we all know what happened there
Before anyone jumps up and down, let me say that developing a sport or halting a long term
decline is not easy and it requires 2 things, effort and money. The former has not been forthcoming
and the latter is spent solely on the internal activities and god prevent anyone reducing committee
expenses! Unfortunately, I also think that ESMBA members and other registered players and other
Associations would be dead set against their money being spent elsewhere other than in their own
country on their own events, even though it is in the long term interests in our sport.
The future of our sport is outside the UK and I look to Europe and the rest of the World to see
our sport develop, although if it happens it will be without any help or effort from the UK. At the mo-
ment it seems that both Norway and Sweden are somewhat tainted by current developments, more
of which another time. I would place a lot of interest in Canada’s fledgling developments and the
hopes that it may bring in the USA. Looking the other way I see China and the far East as potentially
our biggest growth area if we can find a way to do it at a reasonable cost.
However, it seems that commercial interests are not as keen as I hoped they would be, for
reasons I will not go into here. It seems the powers that be are far more interested in marketing out-
door and indoor bowls. Short Mat would I feel have many more participants than other forms of
bowls because of it local nature and the need NOT to spend large sums of money on building indoor
and outdoor facilities.
I look at what China and the Far East did for “Ping-Pong”, which is not highly regarded in the
UK but in China “ping pang qiu”. However, “Table tennis now regarded by many an old people's
game. In some parks all the public ping pong tables are dominated by men and women in the 50s,
60s and even 70s who show up with a paddle and container with leaf-laden tea.” Does that sound
familiar to Bowlers? Nevertheless, over 300 million chinese tuned in to watch an Olympic final be-
tween two Chinese players. A reported 10 million Chinese play competitive ping-pong regularly, with
some 300 million who play on occasion. So, even Table Tennis is shrinking in China as other sports
take hold, but the 10 million competitive players is still approaching 20% in size of our UK popula-
tion, and 300 occasional players is still well over 5 times our population.
Enough of Table Tennis, a sport I played for many years, how can we make Short Mat bowls
grow both in the UK and abroad. A huge question indeed and other sports no doubt wish to do the
same. I have tried to publicize it via the magazine but apart from the Irish/Seamus Kyne, no-one
else in any governing body is interested in publicity, hence my frequent references to our secret
sport. As well as the ESMBA, the players Tour have been offered publicity in the magazine, but they
have declined, although they present it well on the internet and have a modern organising approach.
Over the years I have listened to many crack-pot schemes and ideas but the first thing we
have to accept is that Short Mat AND Carpet Bowls are grass roots sports and will never be seen
as high profile sports. Also, to develop in the UK and abroad we must agree that this is possibly our
most important long term and very long term aim, long after we have passed. We also have to
accept that proper professional help/input is needed. Not necessarily involving large amounts of
money being spent but the right help in the right area of development. It will be a very long road
and we probably will not see any great developments in our lifetimes but if we love our sport we
should start the ball rolling with sensible professional help and no crackpot schemes and without
selling our souls to television! - ANY THOUGHTS!