THE Albury and District Bowling Association administration and match committee are under fire on several fronts.
The latest criticism comes from having a general bye in pennant on the Australia Day weekend.
But the match committee scheduled rounds of the district pairs, senior pairs and state president’s pairs at three different clubs last Sunday.
Clubs are questioning why pennant was abondoned but district championships proceeded.
The argument is either both should have been played or both cancelled.
Culcairn president Jim Lee delivered a broadside at the match committee at the association’s recent half-yearly meeting on January 20.
He questioned why his club had been relegated from grade three to grade four in pennant.
Culcairn finished on the bottom of the grade three ladder last season by half a point but Lee said his club would have accepted the decision if a uniform approach of relegating the bottom team in all grades was adopted.
But that didn’t happen, which has likewise sparked criticism from the Henty club.
Its grade four team finished on the bottom of the ladder with just one win and was forced to stay there despite the club seeking to have it downgraded.
Club president Mick Broughan said many younger players were put in the grade four team.
“We are trying to keep blokes keen on playing bowls,” he said.
His other criticism is the district’s match committee has allocated the senior singles to Henty on February 24 where it is likely the club will have to open early and provide lunches for a small number of players.
Broughan said the district singles have been allocated to Howlong and reports indicate its greens are well below standard.
Five clubs failed to attend the meeting after emails weren’t sent out.
District president Noel Trainor was asked the day before the meeting about notification for clubs and responded by saying it was listed in the district program but the district’s program showed the meeting was listed for January 13, which was a week earlier.
A possible backlash is also pending through late applications to Zone 8 and Bowls NSW.
North Albury and Commercial Club applied in December to have several players put in lower grades.
Association secretary Phil Schuster did not forward the applications to the zone until January 22 after two rounds of pennant had already been played.
Approval is still pending and if players are knocked back, it could mean the loss of points from the games already played.
- NORTH Albury’s grade two and three teams play each other this week, starting at 6.30pm tomorrow.