Page 4 - Summer 2016

Readers Letters:Layout 1 31-Aug-16 8:15 PM Page 1

4 Dear Bob,
I cannot help but feel that the ESMBA are trying to sell the “sizzle”
rather than the sausage, and I would like to give my reasons for say-
ing this. Hethersett Short Mat Bowls Club was formed in about 1995
and it was agreed that it would be a social bowls club, and would not
be competing in Bowls League games. Dress would be smart but ca-
sual. Cost to be kept to a minimum. We had a membership of 40.
We did in fact play the occasional friendly game with other clubs
Readers Letters about twice a year.

and Emails I joined the club in 2004 and became club Captain in about 2009
and by this time many of the original committee who started the club
had died or were too infirm to play. But we continued to run the club in the same way.
I personally enjoyed playing a more competitive game and at the start of 2015 at my sug-
gestion we joined 2 other clubs to play eight friendly matches throughout the winter months.
This idea was discussed at committee level without any objections.
Unfortunately, quite a few members said that they would not come if we were going to play
matches and for the first time in years our membership has fallen below 30.
I have spoken to a number of our members (mostly women) and they tell me that they
enjoy coming to bowls to have a chat and enjoy the game without the pressure and stress of
competition matches. Maybe this is what we should be selling?
Our grassroots membership is made up of old people who are still enjoying a “friendly”
game. The social aspect of our clubs must reflect this. We did produce one member who now
plays for the county. I believe that word of mouth is the best advert, if you enjoy doing some-
thing you will encourage your friends to join you. This is good. But if we continue to push the
competition side of the game we may put new members off. How do other clubs recruit new
members?
Keep up the good work!
David Neal

Hi David, I’m not sure where to start this about “keeping up the good work”. As I have often bor-
ingly repeated, I struggle to keep the magazine going in a sport that’s very apathetic and not
even the National Associations seem too bothered about publicity. Occasionally I go through a
bout of “wishing to throw the towel in” and this is one of those times as I have become very disil-
lusioned with our great sport. However, I’ve kept the magazine going for 24 years and Autumn
next year becomes my 25th Anniversary, perhaps .................?
Point over and returning to your letter, we play a sport that can be all things to all people,
from under 9 to over 90. To some degree I think the ESMBA may have become competition
mad, trying to invent new ones as they go along. However, I think the majority of ESMBA
bowlers enjoy local competition and some enjoy National Competition and I think this applies to
most sports. Personally, I prefer competitive play to Social play but I still enjoy Social games but
I couldn’t do it every week. But it is still a very important element of Short Mat Bowls.
I agree that in England at least we have taken our eye off the ball in recruiting new mem-
bers to our sport and this is a very difficult task indeed. We are an ageing sport that has shrunk
by about a third from our peak some years back. That’s about 8,000 players, which is a very
significant number. I think we need professional help in our quest to promote our sport but this
has fallen on stony ground. Getting new players is a long term process over a decade or more
and attending a few retirement shows etc. is only a tiny part of the solution.
A chunk of the money spent on a few players at the top should be earmarked for promot-
ing our sport on a long term basis but not all as it does cost to be an England player. Hopefully
we can attract both competitive AND Social bowlers who enjoy a game, a chat and a cup of tea
with biscuits. As I said we are after all a sport for all.