Eighth National Bowling Arm Sides Championships: Play Commences Next Week
Next week brings an inaugural event to Western Australia – hosting of the Eighth National Bowling Arm Sides Championships at Warnbro Bowling Club from Monday 5 to Friday 9 September!
Starting in 2011 the first Bowling Arm Interstate Challenge was played between Victoria “Armed Vics” and New South Wales “Woomeras”. This expanded to a larger interstate tournament in 2013 with the addition of South Australia “Bowlers Arm Association”. The event was held yearly after this with the addition of Queensland “Maroon Arm Bowlers” in 2016, Western Australia “Sandgropers” in 2017, and Tasmania “Van Diemen Devils” in 2018. The Challenge now has six states involved and is officially known as the “National Bowling Arm Sides Championships”.
Bowls Australia endorses the Arm Sides Championships by providing a “National Perpetual Trophy” for the winning state while the host state runs the event and provides Gold and Silver medals. The states also play for interstate Shields during the Championships – and at 15 Shields that is a lot of game play!
A State Representative Side consists of 15 players, plus three reserves, who form three teams of five. Format of play is Singles & Fours and Pairs & Triples played concurrently. This event is a mixed gender tournament with a minimum requirement of two female bowlers with one female player in every set of games played.
The Championships commence next week and will be run from Monday 5 to Friday 9 September at Warnbro Bowling Club. WA was meant to host this event in 2020 and it is only now in 2022 that we can go ahead due to Covid restrictions. Daily scores and position rankings will be provided via the Bowls WA news site and linked to Facebook along with uploaded pictures to a Facebook photo album.
Laurie Blurton, WA Sandgropers Coordinator, reports that the team is in good shape to play the other states competitively and rise in tournament rankings!
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT … SO PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT WA’S ARMED BOWLERS AT THE WARNBRO BOWLING CLUB … 38 OKEHAMPTION ROAD, WARNBRO.
