What do they do for us?

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Letter from Conrad Melton - Chief Umpire USLBA Winter 2009/2010

But what do they do for us social bowlers?

                Too many answer that question with “I don’t know…”
               which gives them “no reason” to support the USLBA

Unfortunately, it has become one of the mysteries of our time:  What do Bowls’ parent organizations provide for bowlers who don’t compete beyond the club level?  Most of the mystery can be blamed on World Bowls and the United States Lawn Bowls Association, who have neglected to let their members know (1) what they’ve done and (2) what they’re doing to keep the sport alive and well.  So here’s a list of their heftier functions.  Most bowlers actually know about these duties, but some slip away from memory and some are taken for granted.

1. Defining the rules defines the sport.

USLBA and WB currently provide 70 pages of definitive stipulations for the sport.  If it were not for these controls, there would be NO standard, hence, hundreds of versions, resulting in no true version of the sport of Bowls.  The laws define the playing area, the equipment, the kinds of competition that are available, the positions and responsibilities of each member of a team, the length of matches, what is a toucher, what to do about unexpected disturbances during a match, how to score, who and how someone can make challenges, how to appeal a ruling, what are appropriate penalties for various infractions, what are the responsibilities of tournament officials before, during and after a competition, behavior on and around the green, and guidelines in dozens of other areas. Some of these rules, procedures and principles have been passed down for hundreds of years.  The rest are continually debated and fine-tuned to ensure our sport is safe from diluting influences, including technological advances, popular fads, transgressors or ‘whatever.’  In every country of the world, the rules keep the game the same.

2. Controls bowl manufacturing and artificial surfaces.

The USLBA is directly connected to, and continually communicates with, World Bowls, which, like its name implies, oversees every lawn bowling nation, community and club in the world.  WB does the big ticket jobs that its 58 member nations cannot do.  They certify the manufacture of bowls and the building and maintenance of greens, assuring bowlers everywhere that there are clear and absolute standards for bowls’ diameter, weight, and bias.  Can you imagine what would happen if there was no regulatory authority and black market bowls started becoming available?  From that day onward, no competition in the world could be guaranteed of being a fair contest.  Soon, the outcome of bowling tournaments would have no more credibility than TV wrestling.

3. Standards, Tests and Approvals

Have you ever heard a lawn bowler say “well, let’s just go over to the park and we can bowl in the outfield on the baseball diamond?”  It’s ridiculous, of course.  Without greens, there would be no bowls.  Few people understand the complex and unique requirements for our “single use” bowling greens.  But World Bowls safeguards green expertise and makes it available for each of its 58 “Member National Authorities.”  Have you ever wondered who has the responsibility for setting the standards for new technology in the manufacture and testing of artificial greens?  If you guessed World Bowls, you’re right.
                                                                             

4.  Umpires

Umps are a benefit most bowlers simply take for granted.  But no one plays this game for very long without needing a knowledgeable and objective authority to step in and on-the-spot resolve some strange occurrence.  Umps are living libraries, our sport’s pillars of accuracy and fairness, and they are sanctioned, organized, certified, and periodically re-certified, for the convenience of the players.  Clubs also are expected to provide umps for their in-house tournaments.  If your Club membership contains a certified umpire, you’re lucky.  There are less than a hundred active umps in the entire U.S.  Can you imagine trying to play this game seriously without them?  And they provide those services for free! 

5. Providing opportunities for higher levels of competition.

Bowls is competitive.  Even in the daily draw, where “it doesn’t matter much which side wins,” it’s way more fun to finish first than second.  And how satisfying is it when you draw your bowl within a foot of the jack?  Bowlers know the longer you play, the better you get.  That explains why most of us eventually choose to step up, attend an outside tournament, and see what it’s like with tougher competition.  Credit for sanctioning and supporting those options belongs to the parent organizations.

6. Who’s good?  Better?  Best?

“Who’s best?” is a question people never stop asking.  USLBA’s “playdowns” in each of its seven geographic regions, attracts and involves scores of serious bowlers with an opportunity to try and qualify for the National Championships.  If the Championships and the playdowns didn’t exist, bowlers would demand that they be invented.  Even among the few who never have and never will leave their home Club to compete, just the announcement that “the new National Champions” are from your Division is worth a healthy smile and some pride, right?  The actual National Championships typically require about seventy people and a full year of work to produce.  Unfortunately, too many bowlers take them for granted.

7. USA vs. the world.

Would Americans be appalled if bowlers couldn’t put together a team to represent the USA in international competition?  Of course we would.  Because of the parent organizations, we can, and we do.  The development and maintenance of those competitions, year after year, is organized, coordinated and protected by World Bowls and the 58 National Authorities, including the USLBA. 

8. Ignorance sometimes rules.

Unfortunately, the existence of a national team is used by a lot of uninformed bowlers as an excuse to NOT support USLBA.  Their “logic” goes like this: “Well, I’ll never be good enough to be on a national team, and I don’t want my dues money going to pay the expenses of those who are!”  The truth is that the USLBA stopped providing financial assistance to our International bowlers years ago.  Yes, it’s a great honor to be chosen as a member of Team USA, but did you know each applicant must be able and willing to pay all their own expenses?  That’s times two for anyone who wants to take their spouse.  Attending those competitions are a great honor, but the honoree pays the tab.  And three thousand bucks is well beyond chump change for most of us, especially our champions who have jobs and children. 

9. Who do we talk to?

No matter who “we” are or what the agenda, it’s World Bowls (or one of the 58 Member National Authorities) that provide the contact points between every person and agency that has an interest in Bowls.  Should bowls be in the Olympics?  Keeping the channels open for discussion and maintaining cordial relations with the International Olympic Committee and the USOC are two more functions provided by our parent organizations. 

In conclusion…

There’s a substantial list of reasons to keep the parent organizations alive and healthy:  70 pages of rules that keeps the game the same; standards for the manufacture of bowls and the construction of greens; keeping the black market out of the game; libraries of information about natural greens; control over the development of artificial surfaces; umpires; maintaining intra- and international competition; coordinating communications between 58 bowls-playing nations; and the continual administrative guardianship to prevent even unintentional transgressors from taking the game into unwise or irresponsible directions. 

10. A dollar and sixty-six cents?

Without WB and the USLBA, the game will surely continue to wither.  Until then, every Lawn Bowling Club in the world will welcome you to play with them as their honored and special guest.  What other sport offers such treatment?  In America, being a member of USLBA costs $1.66 per month.  What’s that?  A cup of coffee?  One-tenth of a lunch for you and a friend?  One-fiftieth of a day on the golf course?

No one can guarantee a vibrant resurrection of the sport, but fully supported, robust parent organizations surely provide the game with its best chance to survive. 

Bowlers know our sport is superior in its advantages:  playable by both genders and all ages, it provides safe and healthful exercise, strengthens mind-body coordination, rewards physical finesse, requires continual strategic analysis and flexibility, is inexpensive, and more.  Unfortunately, the game’s inherent greatness isn’t enough to save it.  But for less than two piddling bucks a month, each of us can do our share to both strengthen the game today and ensure that tomorrow our great-great-grandkids will have the chance to roll a bowl.

                                                                                                           By Conrad Melton, 2009