Club Super Challenge expands to the Barossa
“It’s a new timeslot that potentially new bowlers can play in, cricket players for example can come and play bowls on a Friday night and still be able to play cricket on a Saturday. This new Club Super Challenge in the Barossa has the potential to get more families in and around bowling clubs.” Mathew Short explains the theory behind this new competition in a nutshell.
Mathew Short is one of the enthusiastic members of a progressive committee (pictured below) who have tweaked the original Adelaide metro concept of the Club Super Challenge, with the idea of making this competition even more social on a Friday night appealing to the Barossa community to come and watch quality bowlers in action.
Many of the participants about to embark on this new Club Super Challenge, previously competed in the Taylor Cup in Adelaide, so know it was a good idea and wanted to make a go of it in the Barossa and Light Association, which covers Angaston, Eudunda, Freeling, Kapunda, Lyndoch, Mount Pleasant, Nuriootpa and Tanunda.
This format of Club Super Challenge (pairs, triples and fours), can suit people who feel time poor and commitment to bowls on a Saturday is difficult, get out onto the bowling green. A Friday night might be more sustainable for bowlers who have retired from pennants due to life commitments, than a Saturday afternoon. Excitement is brewing with people in the Barossa who can see this as a Friday night event worthy of entertainment to watch while they have a few social drinks and a bite to eat.
Introduced in this Barossa Club Super Challenge will be a Flexi Player, who is someone who hasn’t played bowls before, or hasn’t played pennant bowls for three years, or a Night Owler/social bowler.
Mathew Short shared his feelings about the Flexi Player introduction, “For me the introduction of a flexi player is really exciting. Someone questioned if we’re really playing with our best players, the flexi player still has a chance to actually play with some of the best players. They’ll be playing alongside state squad members. You’ll never really find a sport where that will really happen.”
“It’s all about an eye opener, if you’re a fringe wanting to play Saturday pennants player who wants to rub shoulders to see what competitive play feels like compared to a social game then this is a really good opportunity to go into that.”
Graham Miller (pictured below), new Flexi Player for Angaston Bowling Club said, “It’s a great concept to introduce new bowlers to bowls, a Friday night concept works really well for me, it’s a great time slot, plus this is introducing more competitions to bowls.”
The Club Super Challenge can be seen as a transition from Night Owls through to pennants, by the committee members.
There are nine bowlers in each team, eight full club members and at least one flexi player. There’s a focus on teams being competitive so clubs will be sure to have strong teams while introducing new blood to the sport.
It appears that all clubs from the Barossa Light Association will submit teams to the Club Super Challenge which commences in November. With the format of pairs, triples and fours, there’s all the three different disciplines.
The committee members are keen to mention that this is a good steppingstone for players to make a move into higher competitions and especially grades. This is an opportunity to get members from opposing clubs together more often than just finals. Its good to see a few more familiar faces a few more times of the year.
More regions and associations may like to look at this concept for their region too.
