"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing,
be nothing."
- Elbert Hubbard
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June 17, 2005
The annual Interstate side series has been pushed forward of the
original allocated February 2006 date and will now be played from 22cnd May
2006 in Darwin instead
of Tasmania due to better weather conditions at that time of the year.
This new arrangement is because of the Commonwealth games taking
place in March.
This decision was based on a recommendation from the High Performance unit
to ensure the athletes have the best preparation possible for the Commonwealth
Games to maximize the team’s chances of obtaining the target of 3 gold
medals and 6 medals overall.
For this Interstate side series, there will be three
rinks instead of the normal four rinks, due the problem that there are
no three green clubs in Darwin. Doing it this way will allow the event to be
conducted at the one venue.
This is disappointing for bowlers all around Australia, the Interstate Sides
series is one of the highlights of the bowling calendar. 32 players throughout
Australia are to miss out on selection to represent their state.
Would it
have been possible to play the series in Queensland where there would be
plenty of three rink clubs, rather than Darwin? However Bowls Australia has
made
the decision and unfortunately that
is that.
Well this
is going to make selecting a side very difficult for our state selectors
who will have to ponder the make up of the side. If the side was picked to
play next week, there are six players who are automatic selections.
Pieter
Harris, John Goddard, Clive Adams and Trystan Smallacombe are the very first
picked along with Robert Ball and Rooster Wishart.
Of course the actual make
up of the side could be quite different, as the series will not be played for
another 12 months and should be selected on current form at the time.
Allowing the side was to play next week that leaves only eight places and going
on the recent series played in Victoria there are two players who have retired,
and most certainly some of the experienced players definitely
under performed and simply didn’t live up to expectations, and may well
be at the end of the line representing W.A in future.
Sherro’s team
P. Harris (skip) John Goddard, Clive Adams, Trystan Smallacombe.
R. Ball (skip) R. Hughes, D Brown, B. Urqhart.
R. Wishart (skip) A. Provost, K. McIroy, J. Slavich.
Due to very good performances
in the last series from Bruce Urqhart and John Slavich I would keep them in
the team. However there are certainly other bowlers in W.A worthy of consideration
for these positions.
Rooster Wishart gets in because of his medal winning performances at the Moama
Super League series.
Robert Ball at his best is the best.
Russell Hughes has been an outstanding bowler in W.A over the past year.
Anthony Provost has the skills to play three, and one day not to far away will
skipper for W.A
Kyle McIlroy is not quite skipper material at this stage of his bowling career
but clearly good enough to play in the state team.
The decision by Bowls Australia
has left the state selectors in a quandary as far as picking a state
squad with the prospect of the players selected not
playing for the state for almost two years. However they can still have a squad
by selecting the next best 20 players, making up the numbers to 32.
Sherro will attempt to select a squad in the next month or so.
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More on sets play
May 9, 2005
From our wise gent called Bill.
His idea of sets play, of which he is not in favour of for state events, is
to eliminate the tiebreaker and have three sets.
If a player loses the first
set
4/5, wins the second set 15/4 , wins the first set of the tiebreak 4/0, then
loses the next two tiebreak sets 1/0 and 1/0 they lose the game---that is
way out of whack in anyone's book.
Thankyou Bill for your input.
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April 6, 2005
BowlsWA have expressed their intention to have State games
to be played as sets play as was the case with the recently completed Australian
Open series where the singles, pairs and triples were played in this format.
Best of three sets and each set has 9 ends, tiebreaker has 2 ends with a
third end if necessary.
Some will see merit with the new format and if the games are close, players
and spectators can accept
this style of game, there is also the knowledge that on most occasions the
players will play 18 ends and that all is not lost if a player is well beaten
in the first set.
The old school will have some difficulty accepting the new format
Take the case of Roma Dunn in her game
of the Australian
open Singles final.
After the first set (9 ends) she lost 11--12, in the
second set
she won 14--2, then
she
won the tie break 2--0 which
consists of two ends, one each way, and if they are tied 1-1, they play one
more end only to decide
the outcome.
=================================
These were the comments of our wise gent
If Roma had won the first set of the tiebreak 4/0,
lost the second and third set 1/0, 1/0 she would have
still lost the game
even tho she had scored more shots in the tie break---that to me, is way
out of whack
=================================
She has scored 25 shots to his opponents 14 in the first
two sets and still had to play a tie breaker to win the game--had she lost
the tie break her opponent would have won the final, scoring 16 shots to Roma
Dunn's 25 over the course of the game.
To me it would show that player who played best did not win
the contest.
There are other areas of the sets play game that are not good. If the jack
goes out of bounds it is re spotted on the tee of the 6ft line , if that
position is taken up by a bowl it will be respotted a half a metre further
up the green,
and
so on, till there is a vacant place for it to be placed. Boy what a raffle!!!!!! just
depends who the lucky player is regarding where a bad bowl may have
landed.
If sets play does come into vogue. I can see the full blooded drive
being eliminated from many players shot selection, however it is a skill that
would be sad to see eliminated from the kit bag of tricks that bowlers employ..
I like the way the game is played as it is
right now, It ain't broke, so there is nothing to fix. Just one on one, and
on most occasions the player who plays best wins.
We have seen the decline in the numbers nominating for the State Singles, due
to the way it is conducted on the first days play where there is three to a
section, and all taking a turn at marking. The format in this case is very
unfair. Is sets play going to make a difference?
The idea of having sets play in the Australian Open series from what i can
see was due to a huge number of games taking place and to try to make all games
finish around the same time. Also making it easier to manage and ensuring a
manageable timeframe
for
television
purposes.
Our
State
games don't have TV coverage and the fields are small these days, so for mine
we do not need sets play.
However BowlsWA is at least trying something and we must give credit for that.
They will get an enormous amount of feedback
and I feel most of it will be against
sets
play.
I am sure
if the
feeling is
strongly
against
sets
play,
BowlsWA will revert to format we now have.
Where do I stand on this issue?
I prefer things to stay the way they are.
Sherro
Click to---Vote ---
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March 12, 2005:
Well another Interstate
Round Robin has come and gone and the "boys from the West" tried their best
but didn’t
fare so well, unfortunately their stats were down on last year.
Reports indicate the greens were running 12/13 seconds and may not have suited
the team. It didn’t seem to be a problem for the rink of Peter Harris
who finished third best performed rink in the series, not a bad effort considering
the stage they were playing on.
There were several changes made to the team from the last series in an effort
to close the gap on the professional States of N.S.W Victoria and Qld.
It would be hard to mount a case against having some of the new inclusions.
Performances in State and other top line events indicated they should be selected.
The selectors did what they thought was in the best interests of bowls in West
Australia, however on this years performance what would the players who were
dropped from last years team be thinking?
The selectors had to contend with two withdrawals from the selected side and
one of the dropped players,Trytsan Smallacombe was reinstated and was part
of the very successful rink of Peter Harris.
It would seem that W.A has well and truly lost the edge it once enjoyed and
are really up against it compared to the professional states of N.S.W VIC AND
QLD.
The question is whether W.A have hungrier players coming through the ranks,
there seems to be some indication that we have these players .
Perhaps we need a new group of selectors with new thinking and new ideas, one
thing is most noticeable is the selectors went back to the past when they selected
this team, and this team did not deliver the goods.
The green speed was the same for all teams, as was the case last year.
Compared to the last Round Robin we lost ground where as N.S.W increased more
in 2005.
2004 N.S.W 12 points-----20 rink wins + 202 shots up.
2005 N.S.W 14 points---22.5 rink wins +164 shots up.
2004W.A -6 points--- 17.5 rink wins and a + 5 shots
up
2005W.A- 6 points---15.5 rink wins and a + 28 shots up.
The comparison of the last two series
2004Rooster
Wishart 5 wins + 13 shots 2004
2005 Rooster Wishart 3 wins + 4 shots
2004 Robbie Ball 4 wins - 3 shots
2005 Robbie Ball 4 wins - 13 shots
2004 Peter Harris 5 wins + 1 draw + 27
2005 Peter Harris 5 wins + 1 draw + 57
2004 Russell Hughes 3 wins – 9 shots
2005 Kyle McIlroy 3 wins – 42 shots
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March 3, 2005:
The State side leaves today to play in the Interstate
sides series, and I cannot remember a time when there has been so much attention
paid to the team
and the selectors.
There is a lot of pressure on the team and selectors to perform, brought about
by the dropping of seven players from a reasonably well performed side that
won
17.5
rinks in last years series. Also selecting the side to play in this series,
six months before the event.
Many have disagreed with doing this, and even
if
the team is successful, the next State side should not be selected until a
month before they are due to play.
They have also left the Ferrairi parked in the garage
for the series by not selecting the best bowler in W.A, Russell Hughes. If
there were some issues that needed to
be straightened out other
than his obvious bowling ability, from what I have heard, he has addressed
these issues.
With that knowledge it would have been better to let bygones
be bygones and have him in the team.
There has been suggestions that bowlers in the West don't get enough hard
match practice like the other states do. Fair enough, The selectors scrapped
having
a State
squad { a very disappointing move } and come up with having warm up matches
to give the team some solid games. This has opened
up a can
of worms,
because two of the teams selected to play the State team won their games.
.
The selectors have unwittingly created a situation where by we can now have
two sides, or actually have a state squad of 32 that could play opposite schedules
next year. While one squad plays the northern zone the other squad could
play the southern zone, and visa versa, then meet in three matches against
one and other and select the side from all the these games.
The benefits would be obvious as it would encourage the fringe players onto
better things and keep the experienced players on their toes.
What could we say about expectations of the team,
The last years team had 17.5 rink wins and seven players were dropped.
This new team we would expect to win 20 rink wins to justify what the selectors
have come up with. If the team comes home with less than that it would have
to be classed as a failure for me.
We would wish the team the very best, and it does contain many fine bowlers
who have performed very well in State events.
Lets go W.A !!!!!!
Sherro
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