Already overcrowded, Lawn Bowls needs more venues in Hong Kong. Attempts by the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association to the government to obtain significant venue assistance continue to be unsuccessful and appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
A record number of teams, the closure of one of the public lawn bowls venues and the imminent closure of an institutional venue—both due to major road works for the Wanchai Bypass—means that there will be fixture congestion awaiting the new HKLBA Premier League season.
Despite repeated requests and proposals by the association to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and other government bodies to help ease the growing scheduling problems with new venues, little has eventuated.
Scheduling Dilemma
After a 2-month break, the new league season will officially commence this Saturday April 27. With over 3,000 people actively involved in the league across the eight men’s and four women’s divisions, the HKLBA are increasingly concerned with how they will manage scheduling across the 20 venues available – including seven public venues, nine private clubs and four institutional venues (two police, CLP Power and Hong Kong Electric).
Continuing with the upward trend since the league changed to the 3-rinks-per-team format four years ago, participation numbers have again increased. Last season’s record 76 men’s and 39 women’s teams in the competition will be surpassed this year with 80 men’s teams and 41 women’s.
According to Cyril Leung, the Vice President in charge of the league competition at the HKLBA, a jump in participation has exacerbated the green shortage problem. While there are concerns, the association is embracing the opportunity.
“The increasing popularity of the sport has created some problems for us. On the up side, we see the newly formed Asia Bowling Club and Wahhar Institute of Sports Company begin their league journey this year. And more teams from various clubs are also joining us in the competition.
“However, this also worsens our green shortage problem,” said Leung.
In the past, about 20 per cent of the games needed to be rescheduled due to insufficient greens. This year the percentage has jumped to 26 per cent with 293 games needing to be rescheduled.
Venues Closed
Estimated at approximately seven years to construct, the Wanchai Bypass and Island Eastern Corridor Link project has forced the closure of part of Victoria Park as a small portion of it becomes a construction site. Unfortunately, it will force one of Victoria Park’s two 6-rink greens to be moved by five metres and it will be closed for renovation throughout this entire league season.
“In light of the green’s closure, teams using Victoria Park for their home green will need to reschedule their games out of the normal Saturday afternoon,” according to Leung. “Those clubs affected have been used to this arrangement because there are too many teams there. This year the problem just doubled.”
Currently there are three clubs using Victoria Park as their home green, including Victoria Lawns Bowls Club, City Lawn Bowls Club and Fire Services Lawn Bowls Club.
To add to the venue woes, the green and clubhouse at the Police Officers Club will also be affected by the Wanchai Bypass with the popular institutional venue soon to close for a number of years. Meanwhile, it is understood that other greens are facing closure for renovations, but the time and details are not yet finalised.
With venues already overflowing, Leung also hopes that mother nature will be kinder to them than last season.
“If poor weather washes away any of our fixtures, we will have a big problem because we simply have too little room to make up for this.”
While the LCSD has normally been supportive of lawn bowls in Hong Kong, proposals such as one that would include a lawn bowls green in the Kai Tak Development were not picked up by the Home Affairs Bureau. Another proposal to put a bowling green within the new cycling centre in Tseung Kwan O was also unsuccessful.
Although a 4-rink green in Shatin is underway and scheduled to be opened next year, it will not be enough to match the sports’ growth.
If the venue issue is not solved the increasing participation trend cannot continue, naturally this is of grave concern to the association as it pushes to be more competitive locally and internationally.
“Even though more renovation work for greens is in the pipeline, the shortage will remain in the short-term future—certainly for this year.
“Unless the government decides to do something for this highly popular sport, the situation will only worsen in the years to come,” said Leung.
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
The Lawn Bowls Season Starts Here …
In the men’s Division 1, if Kowloon Cricket Club repeats their success last year, they will match Craigengower Cricket Club’s record of 14 league titles. Their back-to-back title bid will be hugely boosted if the rumour that Hong Kong top player Ken Chan is joining them from key competitor, and last year’s runners-up Kowloon Bowling Green Club, is true.
For KBGC, due to the fact that they will continue to have two teams in the division, top player Lee Ka Ho and Bowler of the Year Wong Chun Yat will be playing for the B team. It will be interesting to see how they fair in the new campaign.
New comer, Island Lawn Bowls Club will enjoy every minute of their first ever appearance in the top flight with a tough target of survival ahead.
For the ladies, Hong Kong Football Club is targeting a history-making feat—to become the first team to win the championship for seven years in a row. Their quest suffered a blow when they lost top bowler Tammy Tham to Club de Recreio, which returns to the top division for the first time since the new format was introduced in 2009.
While the season officially begins this weekend, the women’s Division 4 had their first game last weekend as there are more teams in that division than others.
