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The New Zealand Bowling Association
is determined not to follow the same path New Zealand hockey trod
following its gold-medal success at the 1976 Montreal Olympics,
according to NZBA president Ollie Duckworth.
Currently in Nelson to participate in
the Nelson Bowling Club's centennial celebrations, Duckworth said
the NZBA was determined to cash in on the exposure and success of
the recent World Bowls championships in Henderson. He said everyone
was aware of the New Zealand Hockey Association's failure to take
advantage of the 1976 gold medal triumph, and New Zealand hockey
still seemed to be suffering as a result.
Duckworth said he was thrilled with the success of the world
championships, both from a playing and administrative perspective,
and attributed much of its success to the appointment of
professional business people to organise the event. Now, he says,
the NZBA must "keep the ball rolling" to ensure they "cash in" on
the vast interest created by the championships in terms of enticing
new players into the game.
The NZBA's executive council had already authorised the
administration committee to spend up to $50,000 on advertising, and
campaigns were already underway to get interested non-players along
to their local clubs.
Duckworth said it was important New Zealand maintained a large pool
of young but experienced bowlers to ensure the standards already set
by the likes of Phil Skoglund, Rowan Brassey, Morgan Moffatt, Peter
Bellis and Ian Dickison would continue.
In that light, a New Zealand emerging players team is being selected
next year, for the first time ever, and is likely to make brief
tours of New Zealand and Australia.
"That was the forward thinking of our chief selector, Kerry Clarke,
to keep a pool of experienced players," said Duckworth.
Another innovation Duckworth would like to see introduced to the
sport is inter-collegiate bowls, with high schools throughout the
country selecting teams to play on local greens as part of a schools
competition.
However, he hopes to keep the New Zealand flag flying high when he
travels with the New Zealand team to Australia next month to compete
in a three-test series, only Ian Dickison and Peter Bellis being
unavailable from the world championship squad.
It will be Duckworth's second overseas trip in his capacity as NZBA
president, having also travelled to the second Pacific Bowls
championships in New Guinea last year.
Duckworth was actually born in Nelson 64 years ago but first began
playing bowls as a 19-year-old in Picton with his father. He
moved to Dunedin in 1946 after serving in World War Two and resumed
his playing career as a member of the Dunedin RSA Bowling Club in
1956.
He represented the Dunedin Bowling Centre for six years, without any
centre title success, and was elected club president in 1967-68,
Dunedin Centre president in 1977-78 and New Zealand president in
1977-78. He was first elected to the NZBA in 1973 as a Dunedin
councillor.
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