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WPBA Competitions – Club Voting

WPBA Competitions – Club Voting

Circular 2022-40 has been circulated to all clubs, asking them to submit their votes on the following by next week Thursday 22 September.

A summary of the work done by the competitions committee and all who participated is available at the bottom of this page with an explanation of the process followed.

WP Pairs Format – Men and Women

The current format is to play with 4 bowls each.
Arguments for 4 bowls included that newer bowlers prefer playing with more bowls and feel that they can
be more competitive.

The BSA National Championships have been changed to 3 bowls each.
Arguments for 3 bowls included that more ends could be played (e.g., 18 ends in the Round Robin) and that it was a better test of skill.

Please note that the Mixed Pairs Championship is not included in this vote. As this is effectively a BSA
competition, the format for Mixed Pairs will be 3 bowls.

Please submit your club’s vote on whether the Pairs competitions should be played with 3
bowls or with 4 bowls.

Flag and Muter Format

The current competition format is 3 sets of 7 ends.

It has been proposed by several clubs that this be changed to 3 sets of 6 ends to cut playing time.

Please submit your club’s vote on either retaining the format of 3 sets of 7 ends or moving to
3 sets of 6 ends.

Zoning of Competitions

There was an extensive discussion about zoning most WPBA competitions into 3 or 4 geographic zones.

The consensus was that while this would assist with the costs of petrol and reduce travelling time, it would also negatively impact the competitions.

Two main drawbacks were identified. The first was that players would often be meeting the same opposition in different competitions. The second was that players in a particularly strong zone would be hugely disadvantaged and their playing record affected. They could, for example, be knocked out much earlier than if they were playing across all clubs in the district.

There was some support for a limited experiment of having 2 zones, the thought being that this may assist with travelling, while avoiding the worst of the possible negative consequences.

Please submit your club’s vote on having the Round Robin phase of some WPBA competitions played in two geographic zones, being North and South.

Burnt Ends during Flag and Muter

There is widespread agreement that the spotting of the jack for burnt ends remain in place for most of the competitions. This is particularly necessary with the introduction of time limits for most games.

Most of the input received about either replaying burnt ends or spotting the jack on the 2m mark were
related to Flag and Muter, so we would like to revisit this.

Please submit your club’s vote on whether burnt ends during the Flag and Muter competitions should be replayed, or see the jack placed on the 2m mark.

The Competitions Committee Process

The document below is an outline of the process that has been followed to make the process of revising
the Conditions of Play for the upcoming season as inclusive as possible within our district.

Thanks go to everyone who has been involved in the process. The volume of input received, and the number of clubs participating in the exercise is heartening and shows how much this sort of exercise is needed.

There were Conditions of Play for which consensus was not reached and the decision has been made to put these to a vote of clubs. All Clubs have been asked to please consult with their members and submit their votes on points above. Votes should be submitted to admin@wpbowls.co.za on or before Thursday 22 September.