Is Lawn Bowling Not Sufficient Entertainment?

There’s a big problem brewing at the Sun City Center in Florida that has got a lot of lawn bowlers pretty upset. The Center needs to be expanded in order to include an entertainment building that would fit the needs of the community and others who use the centre for purposes other than lawn bowling. While this sounds like a great project at first, the expansion also means that one of the three greens the Sun City lawn bowlers are now using would need to be destroyed – so that the entertainment building could be built right over top of it. This news has the 1,500 bowlers that use that green pretty upset. But what might be even more upsetting is that no one was consulted about the new project.

John Bailiff, president of the lawn bowling club said that there are two big problems with the centre’s new project. The first is that the lawn bowling club uses all three of its greens when outdoor tournaments are held – a regular occurrence in sunny Florida. And the second problem is that by taking away one of the greens, bowlers will need to rely only on the other two, greatly adding to the wear and tear and soon rendering the two remaining greens useless, as it won’t take long for them to become destroyed simply from overuse.

But the director of the board, Al Alderman has other arguments. He says that the committee who made the decision did in fact consider all other options before deciding to use the green. And the fact is, there’s no where else to put the new entertainment building. Placing it on the property, away from the third green that’s now in danger, would take up valuable parking space and would soon create a parking shortage. And that would be a huge problem. Alderman has also said that the committee considered putting the building off-site at a nearby intersection, but in fact, that proposed site isn’t so nearby after all; it would leave members walking almost an eighth of a mile.

But the site alone isn’t the only problem Bailiff has with it. One of the biggest problems is that the lawn bowling club was never consulted or asked about the move. Bailiff says, “We were called and told this is happening. That was it.” But that might not be it. Bailiff, along with others at the Centre, have now created their own committee to petition against the new entertainment building and try to stop it from ever crowding out their greens.

Spain Wins European Bowls Championship – by a landslide!

When it came time for countries to place their bids for the European Bowls Championship, one of the most prestigious bowls event there is, and an event that only comes once every two years, Spain was one of many that threw their hats into the ring. Germany, Holland, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Switzerland, and Portugal were just some of the countries that placed a bid to be named host of this year’s event. After a great presentation, backed by professionals and experts in the sport, and facilities that are up to the task, Spain won it by a landslide. In fact, they won it before it was even announced!

John Muldoon, National Director of Lawn Bowls Spain outlined the initial bid, and the reasons why Spain was the perfect choice to host the event. Sr. Jose Luis Boto, the President of Federacion Espanola de Bolos, then went to Madrid to make the presentation, based on Muldoon’s bid, and while there, also enthusiastically backed the bid. Bob Donnelly, Regional Delegate to the Federacion de Bolos de la Comunidad Valenciana, then outlined the facilities that would be used during the event, and showed how they were more than capable of handling the event.

In addition to showing that Spain was able to host the event, they also showed how it would help the local economy. The value of Spain’s bid, and the way it outlined everything that Spain had to offer, was so appealing and powerful that the other countries withdrew their bids, giving Spain the event.

With so much momentum already building towards such an elite event, Spain has people talking about it this year now more than ever!