The BCGBA in the beginning

Bowling News

Over recent months the focus has been on the struggle between the BCGBA and the three counties breakaway group and recently I came across this article from Steve Davies who is the lead of the online magazine called the Bowls Observer. He doesn't write a lot of articles but in the present context I thought it might be of interest to HuddWeb readers to share this one. It covers the beginning of the BCGBA, why it was formed and what places it has held in the hierarchy of crown green bowling.

This is the first of three articles. I don't think the other two are as relevant or as helpful as this one can be so I will not be adding them. There is a link to the other two articles at the end of this posting for those of you still interested. All the rest of the views on this page come from Steve Davies and he starts by introducing himself. I can add to this by saying that Steve Davies was nominated to be the independent Chair of the Special General Meeting on 14 November but the BCGBA declined to invite him to take on that role as he was regarded as not being independent enough to satisfy both the main parties around the table.

Who is Steve Davies? Throughout his bowling career Steve has always supported the admin side of the game as well as a keen player of the game. As a club secretary, association secretary, county delegate on the BCGBA (National Governing Body) Management Committee, Media Officer for the BCGBA, Merseyside champion in 2002 and Merseyside County President (2014-15) Steve has always been keen to promote the game especially through the broadcast of the game on TV or Internet. Steve set up the LIVE BOWLS YouTube channel which became the Bowls Observer channel and, through the LDBA, runs national competitions. Seeing an avenue to report on and promote the game Steve set up the Bowls Observer on-line magazine.

This is the first of a small series of articles on the governance of crown green bowls and the problems which have come to head this year. This article is far shorter than it could have been and will focus on how the sport was governed prior to the formation of the independent board. I think if we are trying to work where we are going it will help to know where we have been. So, please forgive this trip down memory lane.

About the BCGBA

For crown green bowls the national governing body is called the British Crown Green Bowling Association (BCGBA) it was formed in 1907. Every bowling club has someone it sends to meetings it’s leagues holds, or it’s county holds, and each county has someone it sends to represent it at BCGBA meetings. You pay them affiliation or league fees, so you get to be in the room and have a vote when decisions are made. It’s the same principle with the BCGBA as counties were represented at the BCGBA meetings.

The Member associations of the BCGBA are the fifteen mainland counties plus the Isle of Man, The British Parks Association and the Federation of Crown Green Bowls. At the time of the when this article refers to the Management Committee, the BCGLBA (the Ladies Association) was also a member. They have now merged with the BCGBA.

The estimated player membership is in the region of 80,000 players, maybe just over, with club numbers now in the region 1600. Very basic analysis of the player membership is that it is probably between 65% and 70% male with an average age between 65 and 70 years. In 2007 the player membership was estimated at 140,000 with 2882 registered clubs.

The BCGBA income is almost solely from its membership, mainly from a club fee (this year It’s £40), an individual player fee of £1 which is ring fenced for the development of the sport and cannot be used for general administration. You will be able to work for yourselves that the around £64,000 is brought in from clubs as is the main income for the BCGBA to run itself this year. I must thank the competition sponsors for their kind support of the BCGBA competitions, just wish there were more of them.

We have seen a decline in numbers of players and clubs each year and the COVID pandemic alone was estimated to reduce the player and club membership by 10-15%. Though it has also seen an increase in new player registrations since we returned to playing as the health benefits of playing bowls are now better understood, and promoted, by government and health organisations.

Whilst we are here, I must also pay tribute to those who are trying to bring more players into our game. I know a great deal of work is taking place to bring younger players into the sport. The BCGBA Junior County Championship saw Shropshire triumph over Yorkshire and Wales. Sadly, these were the only counties who could get 24 players together to take part. The 6-aside competition which took place at Windle Bowling Club in St Helens, played by most of the other counties, was one of the best days bowling I was fortunate to see this year.

For comparison with our flat-green cousins, an update by Bowls England in June this year advertised 90,000 members and 1800 clubs, Bowls Scotland has 50,000 players with 820 clubs. The English Indoor Bowling Association stated a registered membership of 64,000 in 2024 at that time Bowls England had 94,000 registered players. Bowls England and English Indoor Bowling Association are currently progressing with merger talks.

Pre-board governance

For decades the British Crown Green Bowling was governed by a management committee. To be part of this you had to be an officer, past-President, Life member or nominated by one the seventeen BCGBA members counties and associations to represent them.

The BCGBA Management meetings were held in February, June and November of each year, with a separate meeting in March for county secretaries. The February meeting primarily focused on the season ahead, discussing the financial and competition plans for the year. The meeting in June started to look ahead to the January annual meeting as well plans for the rest of the season. The November meeting was the longest with reports from officers about the season and plans and proposals for the following season.

One of the regular complaints about the BCGBA management committee was the reluctance to publish information on its discussions. Information was passed up and down the chain, usually via the county representatives.

Any proposals to change rules or bye-laws had to be with the BCGBA Chief Executive by the middle of November so they could be formally included in the Rules Revision meeting which was held on the same day as the Annual General Meeting in January.

Any proposed rule changes which may need a change in the rules of the game had to be discussed with the independent British Crown Green Referees Society. This society sits outside the BCGBA structure though they received an annual fee from the BCGBA for their work.

The management meetings had somewhere around fifty people in a room trying to sway opinion their way and could be lively. Any business usually had to go through multiple meetings before a final decision was made and in extreme cases this could take a couple of years. The Officers could not make decisions on their own if it could result in a cost of more than a few thousand pounds. They referred it all to the management committee to protect themselves from any personal liability.

The officers would be asked, or contracted, to be able to work anything from one day per month to two or three days per week. They would also know they would be expected to work vastly more hours or any of the days of the week. This would be evident when there are competition final days when the number of jobs that need doing increase. We have a sport that exists at every level due to the hard work, in every job there is, of volunteers. Usually longstanding devoted volunteers. Sadly, they are often unappreciated and seldom thanked.

To try and make things more effective, less repetitive and frankly less depressing various attempts were made to change how things were done.

One of these was an attempt by a gentleman from Cumbria called Mike Tordoff. He, and the other members of the Governance sub-committee, tried to get the committee to agree to a more formal ten-member Executive, with more powers given to the Officers and representation taken away from the Counties. It would form an English Crown Green Bowling Association and another organisation which would bring the associations governing Wales and Isle of Man together.

The Wales and Isle of Man associations are classed as the Governing Bodies for crown green bowls in their areas and receive support from their respective governments. The aim of any reorganisation of the BCGBA is to try and receive the similar from the government.

Although well thought through the proposals did not advance beyond the discussion phase but the name and other variants of the BCGBA name were registered, and thus protected from use by anyone else, with Companies House. A separate earlier and costly proposal by another sub-committee for a National Headquarters in Stockport and was also not pursued.

As mentioned, the Past-Presidents could attend as full members and their numbers meant they could dominate any discussion and vote. This was thought to be not good practice and eventually changed. The final years of the management committee saw just the officers and member representatives attend the management committee meetings.

Another part of, but separated from, the BCGBA are the Trustees. Every bowler paid a life membership fee, and every new bowler pays a registration fee, and this goes to an account managed by five trustees. This account is invested in the stock market and was set up to be used towards the development of the sport.  In the past loans have been made to the main BCGBA account to cover cash flow issues, some of these fees ended up being written off. It used to be policy that any amount over, I think, £160,000 was transferred to the general account. That may have changed since the introduction of the board.

The financial plans for the year often had to navigate around serious cash flow issues and some counties kindly paid their invoices almost before they were issued with them to help alleviate this. The good running of the BCGBA accounts is with the cooperation of its member counties.

Our link to Government

As the National Governing Body for crown green bowling the BCGBA sits with the other bowling codes as a partner in Bowls Development Alliance (BDA). The BDA has been a topic of heated discussion in the crown green world. It employs full and part- time staff to liaise with Sport England for funding and projects to increase participation.

Sport England recognises bowls as excellent way of keeping adults fit and healthy. Due to the lack of consistently raising the heart rate when playing it is not thought to be ideal for children as a physical exercise. Rather than communicate with all the bowling sports, the formation of the BDA meant that it acts as the link between the individual bowling organisations and Sport England and the Government.

Although we were an original member we withdrew in (I’m taking a stab at) 2012. I was in many meetings at the time and the idea of paying university graduates a competitive salary, which led to a high proportion of the yearly budget going on salaries, was enough to raise the collective volunteer blood pressure to eye-popping levels.

The BCGBA left to help set the Alliance of Bowling Codes (ABC to get ahead of the BDA at least alphabetically) and lobby for funding from Sport England. Although I wasn’t involved with it and reports of what went on were not consistent. The fact that this no longer exists, and we returned to the BDA, gives me the impression that it was a colossal waste of time.

The development of the safeguarding and coaching projects would not have been possible without BDA membership and the COVID pandemic and the requirements of the bowling NGB’s to supply detailed documentation of how to “return to play” were linked to BDA membership.

Membership of the BDA has also helped us develop of Safeguarding and Coaching policies and procedures as well as a greater push for governance changes. Our clubs are also able take part in the annual bowls big weekend and any other promotions.

The next article will look at the communication from the BCGBA which led to the creation of its independent board. Hopefully it will not be as long as this one and my thanks to you for your patience and enthusiasm for getting here.

If you have reached this far and still have an interest in what happened next then you may care to read the next two articles written by Steve Davies. I am not reproducing them here but you can read them in their entirety on the Bowls Observer website.