Bowls on the telly, the how, what and where.

5th August 2016 Steve Davies Articles 0

To watch crown green bowls on the television used to be a fairly easy thing to do. The Waterloo and other events used to be a feature on the screens. Sadly this did not last and for a number of years it became clear that bowls was not thought of as a sport that could be screened.

We have been lucky that this game of ours has had a small but determined group dedicated to recording our events. This started a single camera productions but has grown now with professional production companies beaming our sport across the globe.

This season sees Globegig, Input Media and 247.tv provide their expertise to develop the profile of the game. The single camera work will still go on of course but although that has proved the audience is there, this sport of ours deserves more.

This season has already seen the broadcast, for the second year, of the Cyprus Festival. We have just had the first Globegig production with the broadcast of the British Senior Merit last Saturday. This competition is also being filmed by 247.tv on behalf of BT Sport who will show this in a couple of months. Next to be broadcast will be the Junior Merit from Walsgrave Bowling Club in Coventry courtesy of the fantastically splendid Globegig team.

The Waterloo will be filmed and broadcast by Input Media on behalf of ITV 4 and this will also be available on the Globegig website. Finally we have the Men’s and Ladies Champion of Champions from Blackpool in September. Both the events will be broadcast by Globegig with the Men’s also being recorded and shown on BT Sports. It is also hoped that single camera screening of some events will also take place again.

If you want to watch bowls then this can be done on the Livebowls YouTube channel, Globegig own crown green bowls channel and the TalkingBowls TV channel held on the Vimeo service. The programmes produced for BT Sport and ITV will be available on their own channels and websites.

All these productions would not have been possible without the support of the BCGBA and sponsors. It would be wrong not to mention the fantastic support of FLOWFIT who have been supporting competitions and the productions for years as well as other sponsors, too numerous to mention, without whom they not have been possible.

 

About Steve Davies 172 Articles
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.