North East Valley Bowling Club

Six of the best in the Festival City -The SA International Series will commence at Holdfast Bay in Adelaide next week. 

The up-coming SA International Series at HoldfastBayin Adelaide next week commences a frenetic eight-month period of lawn bowls that will place the city firmly on the world stage.
Poised to ignite from May 15 to 20, the salivating six-nation contest is the first of three events that will put the Festival City securely at the centre of the bowling universe.
Culminating in the sport’s pinnacle event, the World Championships extravaganza in November-December, the calendar also features Australia and New Zealand continuing their time-honoured rivalry in the 34th edition of the Trans-Tasman series in September.
National coach Steve Glasson believes his green and gold contingent is ready to mix it with the best in the business next week.
“It’s going to be an extremely competitive series,” Glasson said.
“The event provides a great opportunity to test our players and find the best possible combinations to lead us to world glory.
“We’re looking forward to heading back to Holdfast Bay and having the South Australian crowd firmly behind us.
“With free entry into the event, it’s another great opportunity for the state to see international bowls at its best.”
For those returning to Adelaide and for those arriving for the first time in the Festival City, there will be no better place to be than Holdfast Bay during the six-day tournament.
Signalling their intent, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Scotland, Fiji and South Africa have named formidable line-ups, with many of the world’s foremost bowlers, along with several debutantes, vying for team bragging rights and national selection ahead of World Bowls in November.
Six of the top eight women in the world rankings will be competing from game one, with New Zealand’s Jo Edwards (1), Val Smith (3) and Jan Khan (5), Australia’s Karen Murphy (4) and Kelsey Cottrell (6), and Scotland’s Caroline Brown (8) headlining an impressive list.
Similarly, the men’s event reads like a who’s who of bowls, and after last year’s Asia Pacific Championships there will certainly be some scores to settle.
The gold medal rematch between the host nation’s Mark Casey and Brett Wilkie and the Silver Fern duo of Richard Girvan and Dan Delany looms as one of many blockbuster affairs, after the Kiwis prevailed by the slimmest of margins last December.
Among a strong men’s field, five are ranked within the world’s top 14, including Australia’s Leif Selby (2), Aron Sherriff (4) and Brett Wilkie (6), New Zealand’s Shannon McIlroy (11) and Scotland’s Graham Archer (14).
Commonwealth Games gold medallists Paul Foster and Alex Marshall MBE, who boast an astonishing 22 world championships between them, also slot into a powerful Scottish contingent looking to plunder the silverware.
Among the debutants for the host nation are 18-year-old Dylan Fisher and 22-year-old Carla Odgers, from Victoria, NSW’s Kate Carriage and South Australia’s own Wayne Ruediger, the grandson of Holdfast Bay legend Ron Ruediger and one of the state’s favourite sons.
It has been a lengthy wait for the Adelaide public to again view one of its own in senior Australian colours on home territory, and there is no doubt that his debut will attract an enormous amount of interest throughout out the bowling fraternity.
The series will commence on Tuesday, May 15 and run through to Sunday, May 20, with Fox Sports televising nine of the international rubbers fromHoldfastBay.

Shaun Scott will this week head back to Adelaide with the Bowls New Zealand Squad in a final bid to gain selection for the Word Bowls Team to be selected in early June. Shaun along with 7 other male Blackjacks and 7 female Blackjacks will be competing against Australia, Fiji, Malaysia, Scotland and South Africa at the Holdfast Bay greens in Adelaide which is one of the venues for the Word Bowls Championships which will be in late November/early December. Good luck Skud!  

Bowls: Quality of administration recognised

By Alistair McMurran

NorthEastValley is the first Otago club to achieve the Bowls New Zealand club check gold award.

The Bowls New Zealand co-ordinator for region six, Peter Thomson, said the national body recognised the sport needed to make changes to stop its decline. “If clubs respond to change they will survive and thrive,” he said. “If not, their lights will go out.” The club assessment check list had been operating since 1997 but the gold and silver awards have only been in operation for the last 18 months and this was the first time the awards had been made.”Only eight of the 610 clubs inNew Zealandreceived the gold award,” Thomson said. “Taieri was one of the 15 clubs that received the silver award.” BowlsNew Zealandwants to use these clubs as models to encourage other clubs to improve their status. “This is the best practice model to have strong and sustainable clubs,” Thomson said. The award is not about performance on the greens but excellence in bowls administration. The club was independently assessed in terms of planning and management, people, the club and the game.

The club had to demonstrate its level of achievements over 24 criteria. The maximum score possible was 120 and to be awarded gold the club had to attain a score of 105 or better.NorthEastValleyscored 108 points.NorthEastValleychairman Cyril Gilfedder said the award “was huge for our club.”It is the recognition of the work put in by a lot of our members.”

The award has nothing to do with how many internationals a club has or success on the green. It is a reward for sound club administration.

NorthEastValleyhas made its mark nationally, running the Speight’s Invitation singles since 1990.

It introduced the Dunedin Casino-sponsored Women’s Classic Pairs for the first time last season.

The club also won the Dunedin City Council’s bowling club gardens award in December.

“We have operational and strategic plans but we had to demonstrate to the Bowls New Zealand assessors that they are working,” Gilfedder said.

Taieri andNorthEastValleyare the only bowling clubs in the Dunedin Centre that employ a fulltime green keeper-manager.

Life member Terry Scott fills that role forNorthEastValley.

The award reflects the efforts put in by our executive and the club members as whole,” Scott said.

“We have achieved it through all their support.” ‘

“It is an achievement we can be proud of and satisfied with,” he said.