Albury and District pennant open to women following Bowls NSW change

As of October 1, the requirement to be male in gender to register with Bowls NSW under the Bowls NSW Constitution and Regulations will be removed.

In 2020, Bowls NSW Association events, such as the state pennant competition for grades one to seven and all singles, pairs, triples and fours championships will be played as open gender, allowing all eligible registered players to enter.

Female bowlers wishing to play in men's competitions must be registered with Bowls NSW. A current Women's Bowls NSW membership doesn't meet the criteria as the two organisations aren't amalgamated.

Albury and District president Jeff Brundell believes it will be positive.

"That could help a lot of the smaller clubs that are struggling to get players. They'll be able to play women in 2020," Brundell said.

"There's going to be backlash from some of the men, but we're the last state to do it. It was inevitable that it was going to happen.

"You can't have gender specific sports, you look at the football, soccer and everything.

"We're probably going further than football because we're allowing men and women to play together.

"I don't see a problem with it."

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Albury and District officials have been in regular meetings about the future of its pennant competition and championships.

The A and D is one of six districts in Zone 8 and it's the only zone within the state to still have districts.

Early intentions from the Royal NSW Bowling Association are swinging towards removing all districts, but the A and D isn't budging.

"We took a vote recently that we would have our normal pennant season and district championships as per previous years," Brundell said.

"We've gone ahead and arranged the championships and we've arranged the pennants accordingly."

Brundell will attend another zone meeting on October 12 and still believes it's a distinct possibility the district could be dissolved.

"I'm sure they're not going to back down and will still want to get rid of the districts," he said.

"Whether or not we disband next year is still an issue, but certainly as far as the 2020 season is concerned, we're going to continue on as per normal."

The Albury and District pennant season starts on January 11.