2020 NATIONALS: UPDATE

by BowlsSA2 on April 28, 2020

After careful consideration and consultation with all State & Territory Associations (STAs), host club Broadbeach, funding partners Tourism & Events Queensland and the City of Gold Coast, Bowls Australia (BA) has confirmed the following decisions in regards to the 2020 Nationals.

  • Cancellation of the State/Territory representative component

Following feedback from the majority of the STAs, BA has agreed to cancel the state/territory representative components of the 2020 Nationals.

These events include the Australian Under-18 Championships, Australian Sides Series and Australian Senior Sides Series.

  • BA to conduct the Australian Champion of Champions and Australian Championships

BA has detached these events from the 2020 Nationals and will look to conduct them at a later date, with the first week of December this year a possibility.

We anticipate that this timeline will allow STAs adequate time to reopen and run their events to source qualifiers, however, this timeline will still be heavily dependent on when the community can return to normality following this pandemic.

The option proposed would be to return these events to a user-pay scenario where each qualifier would pay their own way to the event, with each STA having the option of subsidising their players if they wish.

To help minimise the cost of staging these events for all concerned, we would plan to hold these events in the greater Melbourne or Sydney areas. By running the event in a major capital city, this would help travel logistics and minimise some cost for the attending players.

More information regarding these events will be publicly disseminated as it comes to hand.

  • Cancellation of the Australian Multi-Disability National Championships

Considering this event is also selection-based on the basis of each STA holding championships and/or selection trials, this event is also cancelled in 2020.