Bowling News
The British Crown Green Bowling Association (BCGBA) is the National Governing Body (NGB) for our sport and in turn comes under the control of Bowls England and even higher under the guidance of Sport England. The BCGBA has developed a new 5-Year Strategy which was published last week for the first time. It covers the period 2025-2030 and comes along with some money to support many of the initiatives outlined in the strategy document.
I have included below the Introduction section from the document which outlines the scope, the background and pace of the initiatives covered within it. A copy of the full 68-pages is also included for you to download and read at your leisure. I am happy to include in a future HuddWeb posting, any thoughts or comments on the document that you may wish to share with other bowlers.
Introduction
For many years the sport of crown green bowls has started to see a steady decline since its height of popularity in the late 20th Century. This decline in popularity, since the 1980’s, can be attributed to several factors.
During the 1980s, crown green bowls was a widely enjoyed sport, however, an aging demographic of players has impacted this. As older generations, who were avid players, have aged, there has been a lack of younger players taking up the sport.
Another contributing factor is the rise of alternative leisure activities. With the advent of digital entertainment, such as video games and streaming services, younger generations have more options for how they spend their free time. This shift in leisure preferences has drawn potential new players away from traditional sports like crown green bowls.
Additionally, the maintenance of bowling greens and facilities can be costly. Many clubs have struggled with funding and upkeep, leading to the closure of some venues. This reduction in available facilities has made it more challenging for people to find places to play and to be introduced to the sport.
Whilst acknowledging this, there is still as much demand, if not more, for people to be able to /play the sport. We have seen in recent years, the growth in participation numbers within pockets of our Associations, and we need to build on the development work that has started.
As a sport, we need to break down the stereotype that the sport is there for ‘older people’ – the image needs modernising to enable us to attract a new audience. When you review our demographics, whilst grassroots Clubs have a predominantly older membership, the competitive aspect of our sport is much younger. As an Association, our challenge is to support our Clubs in developing their membership with this younger demographic.
The BCGBA has identified the lack of a National Development Strategy as a key priority in enabling us to grow participation and support our member Clubs and Associations. This strategy document will be updated on a regular basis to allow us to adapt to an ever-changing modern landscape and will be reviewed annually.
Our key aims are identified throughout the following pages and are supported by our ‘8 Point Development Plan’. By working collaboratively as a sport, we can sow the seeds of growth and start to see a return in popularity for many years to come
Your copy of the full 68-page document is here for you to download and read in full at your leisure. Interestingly I cannot find this document on the Yorkshire CGBA website or Facebook pages or the BCGBA website.
The way things are going at the moment, it looks like Greenhead Park may be added to the list of redundant greens as we are advised that the Clowncil have no money available for greens maintenance. This has to me formally confirmed but talks with the maintenance staff have indicated that this is likely to be the case
My impression of the BCGBA is not good - possibly due to not being aware of what they do, poor communication and no one seems to have a good word for them.
But that is changing and I believe they need to be congratulated on their Development Strategy. Clearly a document running to 68 pages can be off putting and I confess that I have mostly skipped through a lot of it . However it makes common sense and the people who have put this together have produced a workable plan which bowling has needed for a long time. They deserve a lot of credit for what they’ve done so far.
What I like is it’s not all” airy fairy”…