It helps if you can be in early

I have been visiting family in Perth this week and the weather is a firm reminder of how advantaged our trans-tasman cousins are when it comes to preparing teams for competition. The advantage of all-year availability of outdoor greens cannot be under-estimated.

We have a trans-tasman test series coming up in November and our players who don’t have indoor facilities are up against it trying to get hard match play.

I talked with Mark Noble and Barry Wynks last week about how they will prepare for the series. Both are playing in the disabled team.

Noble highlighted to me the almost total absence of playing opportunity before Labour Weekend when the centre stages its 2-4-2 mixed pairs competition.

About a week after that, the team will assemble.

I don’t blame clubs for not planning events at that stage of the season.

Our greens are not hardened, weather is extremely fickle and clubs wanting greens to last till end of April are not going to punish them in September and October.

For that and other reasons Noble will play as a joint member out of Victoria in Wellington. Wellington interclub starts early October giving him several weeks of top play. The same situation applies to our interclub with each year some clubs being under prepared with our early November start.

Division one and two interclub is largely made up of players who are in employment, so if they cop a couple of wet weekends they are denied opportunity.

We can’t push the programme back because it is so tight, but we can switch some events.

I would programme interclub in December and bring forward the centre fours to early November.

With qualifying, two from three teams can have a rough game and still get through, allowing them to run into some form.

Interclub, on the other hand, is fire day one or bust. The 2-4-2 is an opportunity to get matchplay, but with playing numbers about three to one men to women, many men can’t get a partner.

For that reason I’ll be heading to Kapiti at Labour Weekend to compete in their open men’s triples. These programme suggestions are of course too late for this season, but could be considered for next season.

Another option I would be keen to see adopted is what Wanganui do in regard to club championships.

Several weekends during the season are designated ‘‘club championships’’ in the centre programme and open tournaments cannot be played against them.

So often in the Manawatu entries to top tournaments are compromised because clubs are still playing championships.

The designated weekend would alleviate this issue. I see from the centre programme virtually all Thursdays are taken up with tournaments, with Takaro taking what was the free day.

What I see as a little frustrating is all midweek bowls has become three-bowl triples with Skoglund Triples and Elizabeth Walker using the same format.

It’s probably all right for frontend players, but those playing at the top end are usually faced with one hand blocked and the other one worse by the time they get to the mat.

I’m an unapologetic two-bowl fan.

I see Terry Johnson will be a joint member at Levin club this season. Last season he played out of Northern and Palmerston North, so whether he’ll be lining up for three clubs remains to be seen.

Promising eight year and under players Chance Hausmann and Doug Winter have joined Palmerston North seeking tougher competition and interclub play.

That’s it for this week. By the time I produce another column several clubs will have opened.