FEBRUARY CEO REPORT
By Brett Wilkie
Another exciting year of bowls has commenced with the QLD Junior State Championships complete and summer competitions underway. 2021 was a challenging year again with the impacts of COVID-19; fingers crossed our calendar is not hampered this year and events are able to go ahead as planned. All the best to districts, clubs and members across the State for the year ahead.
Qld Sports Awards I attended the Qld Sports Awards evening late last year with Kane Nelson who was a finalist in the 2021 The Courier Mail Channel 7 Queensland Junior Sport Star of the Year. Congratulations Kane on being a finalist and well done to Mollie O’Callaghan who won the award for swimming.
2022 Junior State Championships Well done to all juniors in this event on their performance and sportsmanship displayed. Thank you to the parents/carers/family/coaches/clubs and districts who supported the juniors so they could attend this event. Thank you to Cameron King from North Toowoomba Bowls Club for his assistance along with volunteers from the North Toowoomba, Toowoomba and Club Toowoomba Bowls Clubs. All six days were livestreamed, thank you to Robbie Allan and Brian Marshall along with other commentators including Des Kemp, Kerry Green, Katelyn Inch and Ryan Burnett. Thank you to the Toowoomba Regional Council, Sunblessed Sunscreens and J Carroll Club Promotions for their ongoing support of this event. Congratulations to the ten girls and ten boys invited to attend a junior camp in April.
BQ Board and AGM Nominations closed on January 31 for the role of Vice President, Director of Finance and two Board Directors on the Bowls QLD Board. Details of nominations received will be in the March Bowler. The Bowls QLD AGM will be held on Wednesday, March 16.
State 8 a Side Mixed Event Bowls Queensland has established a new State-wide Interclub “8 a Side Event” set to commence in 2022, starting at club, through to district level, then onto group playoffs and culminating in State Finals. This 8 a Side Event will encompass club sides of four women and four men contesting women’s pairs, men’s pairs and mixed fours disciplines.
Each club who wishes to enter a side will have an intraclub playoff if needed. If a club only has one side to nominate, they will automatically progress. Successful club sides will then advance to district playoffs with the winning club side advancing to group playoffs. The successful club side from each of the eight group playoffs will contest the State Finals to be played on Thursday and Friday, November 3-4 2022 at a venue to be advised.
Bowls Queensland must be notified of group winners by Monday October 10 2022. District/groups will need to coordinate a timeframe for club/district/group playoffs to be completed in line with this date. Please find Conditions of Play for this new interclub 8 a Side Event on the Bowls QLD website.
Bowls QLD Event Hosting Expressions of interest are open for any clubs interested in nominating to host the following Bowls QLD events: 2022 State District Mixed Pairs, 2022 State Champion of Club Champion Finals Series, 2022 State Pennant Finals, 2022 8 a Side Mixed Event. Expressions close on February 14.
Live Streaming Bowls Queensland will be livestreaming all of our events in 2022. The livestreaming will use the Bowls Queensland Facebook page platform and will also be accessible through the Bowls Queensland website under the events tab (for those not on Facebook). To enlarge the screen, click on the game you would like to watch and then hover your mouse cursor on the bottom right corner and as per the red arrow below, click on “Click to enter fullscreen”; here you can also click on the speaker icon to activate/turn on the sound to hear the commentary. If you are waiting for a new live game to appear on the page, don’t forget to refresh the page regularly to load it. Some games may take a moment to load and become clear, depending on your internet speed.
Many clubs are now running these livestreams on their club house TVs which is great for their patrons. Thank you to the Bowls Gold Coast Tweed Media team for livestreaming Bowls Queensland’s events.
Brett Wilkie
