Newsletter No 3 March 2025
From Bowls New Zealand: Bowls +
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Now up and running.
What is Bowls+?
Bowls+ is a points, ranking and grading system created by Bowls New Zealand. It is designed to give extra meaning and interest to every game of bowls you play, as points will be riding on it. The system allocates points to every match at every level and takes into account variances in skill levels so you earn more points for beating someone ranked higher than you and vice versa.
In addition, Bowls+ allows you to dive into all your statistics in real depth. It holds a record of all your games played in the last three years that have been entered into BowlsHub and provides interactive graphs and displays that allow you to study your performances across every format and every level of competition. And you can check out how your mates are doing by easily searching the database and seeing if your latest win has taken you past their points total!
For clubs and centres there is the ability to sort by points total or grades for players within your centre or club which could help you determine awards and end of season presentations as well as guide tournament structures. If you want to find more detail about how it works, try reading our FAQ page.
Key information
The two key things we are stressing to clubs, and that centres need to know, is that members who want to have their results contributing to their Bowls+ profile will need to:
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Have a BowlsHub ID
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Have their match results entered into BowlsHub
Below is a list of resources we have created that will be useful and which we will be sharing with bowlers through a dedicated newsletter on 17th March.
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Introduction to Bowls+ (video) Intro
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Bowls+ webpage https://bowlsnewzealand.co.nz/bowls-plus/
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Quick Results Entry and Editing (2 x videos) Enter Quick Results and Edit Quick Results
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Sign-up for BowlsHub (video) https://youtu.be/buHfnkwtzfI?si=MVlfva2pNlMjXuPJ
The first three items are self-explanatory and we have provided them to aid your general understanding. For any centre that wasn’t able to make the call in February we suggest that you watch the Introduction to Bowls+ video to give yourself a quick education.
Quick Results
Quick Results is an additional feature that has been added to BowlsHub to allow game results to be entered for matches that have not been created in BowlsHub (ie. club results or Centre results where BowlsHub is not in use). As you can see from the video the process is very straight forward and only takes a short amount of time.
We have also created a video on editing a Quick Results entry so that any inadvertent mistakes can be amended. The intent is to make this an easy process to follow for users, regardless of whether you are using BowlsHub regularly or not. We are also communicating with clubs and suggesting that every club designates someone to be responsible for entering results into BowlsHub. We will allocate administrator rights within BowlsHub once clubs communicate who their administrator is to us.
Sign-up for BowlsHub
We will include the Sign-up for BowlsHub video in our newsletter and would encourage Centres not using BowlsHub to share this with your clubs so that they are aware of the process. A reminder that results need to be entered into BowlsHub to contribute to points in Bowls+ and that everyone involved in a game needs a BowlsHub ID for a game to be entered. Club members without a BowlsHub ID can sign up themselves without a club needing to be involved in the process.
Bowls New Zealand Support
We understand that as with any new system there will be questions and assistance required to help people get used to how it all works. We are here to help and happy to answer questions or provide guidance around Bowls+.
You can contact us on bowlsplus@bowlsnewzealand.co.nz. Provide as much detail as possible when contacting us including a phone number so we can call you if need be.
The minutes and various reports from the board meeting have been uploaded onto our website.
​Here are the links
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Mens Tournament Report​​​
​Ladies Coach and Selectors Report
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Our men's and women's teams playing sevens intercentre have now returned. They had some good close games.
Coach Carl Street commented: A big step up for some of our players into the big leagues which has been fantastic for them to gain new experiences playing at this level that will make them stronger next time they go to the premier events. A great performance by the team with games that could easily have gone either way with just two ends to go, unfortunately not our way this year……but look out next year.
(Photos on Facebook, Homepage, Representatives Page)
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Some of our Central Otago Teams photos have now been received and were missed from Facebook and the homepage of the website at the time they were played. They are all uploaded now onto the representative section of our website. Coach Carl commented about the Lex Kimber: Congratulations go to Canterbury Country this year who had a great weekend to come out on top for 2025. Our central ladies battled well all weekend finishing in second place. Most importantly they made some new friends along the way and were great advocates for the centre, well done team. ​​​​​
Lex Kimber Development Tournament
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Senior and Development men v Sth Otago 12th January
Senior Men Southern Six
Super Sixes
Great TV Watches
What a feast of bowls we have had on Sky and You Tube during the NZ Fours and Mixed Pairs. Most remarkable player was Sue Hodges from Tauranga with her "Lime Fizz" bowls who made it all the way to the finals of both the Fours and Mixed pairs. She was no teenager either and anyone who has had hip problems would have felt for her as every step looked like pain. The commentator said she would have played over 30 matches in 8 days. (I haven't checked his calculations) Sue Hodges went on to help Bay of Plenty win the Intercentre Sevens by beating Jo Edwards in the final 25-21.
Mens NZ Fours Final played 23 February Click here
NZ Mixed Pairs Final played 27 February Click here
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AROUND THE REGION by Ian Hall
Alexandra has two lawn bowling clubs each with 60+ members. The Alexandra District Club (ADC) was formed as a chartered club in 1996 bringing together the Alexandra RSA, the RSA Bowling Club, and the Alexandra Town and Country Club.
The club has one manicured grass green plus a smaller half green and a wonderfully historic pavilion, adjacent to the terrific modern facilities of the District Club. The club generally have an annual charity tournament and can raise a good amount of money depending on the cause.
Our current Bowls Central Otago President, Trevor Cowan, is a member of ADC while Steve Archer and Paul Spooner have achieved success in Centre tournaments. The women won the Champ of Champ fours in 2024 and the men won the Champ of Champ pairs.
The green is typically "fast" to play on and remember to doff your cap when inside as a mark of respect to RSA members. past and present.
