An era in bowls will come to an end next month when one of the sport’s greats, Phil Skoglund, steps down as Bowls Manawatu president.
He turns 77 next month, his health hasn’t been the best and so he has judged now is the time to exit.
“I haven’t played a lot this year, through being involved with the centre, and my health prevented me playing two days at a time,” he said.
Skoglund succeeded Johnston Park’s Tony Jensen who stood aside two years ago.
It is not clear who will succeed Skoglund; nominations close in the middle of the month.
There are two vice-presidents, Lyn Elphick and Tony Woodley who recently resigned as the Ashhurst Bowling Club president and transferred to Terrace End.
In recent years there has not been the automatic succession from vice-president to president as was customary in the past.
“We made quite a number of changes in the two years,” Skoglund said.
“I think it has been reasonably OK, although certain factions in the centre might have different views.”
This year the centre brought in a new gold-star badge backdated to 2005, set up a new interclub competition involving Wanganui and took all clubs to Kimbolton for closing day.
Despite not getting as many pub charity grants as expected, the centre is expected to declare a small surplus at the annual meeting next month. A hand-brake was the $7000 fee for entering the national intercentre finals. The centre put in $4000, but had the players not put their hands in their pockets, it wouldn’t have been viable.
Nothing has changed when it comes to the annual decline in bowls membership.
“It’s going to be a battle for everyone; not only us, other sports.”
Skoglund knows it has been difficult for clubs to set their tournament programmes because Bowls NZ “have first bite at the cherry” and then the Manawatu centre has to work around those before the clubs gets their turn.
In Skoglund’s first year, changes were made and his major challenge was to break even financially. More prize money was obtained for open tournaments rather than rewarding the top few bowlers.
“The centre’s job is to look after both. If you’re not getting support for centre tournaments, you don’t run them.” Three tournaments were cancelled this summer because of a lack of entries.
“Some said it was the way we scheduled them.” One was an any-gender triples event which clashed with the Taranaki fours.
“It provided an opportunity for women to participate and we didn’t get support from either gender.”
An open triples at Anzac weekend was scrapped after only nine women and 20 men entered, 24 men needed to qualify as a gold-star event. When the centre tried to combine the two and run an open tournament, 11 of the men withdrew.
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