Bowls marks 180 years, ramps up Brisbane 2032 pitch
Hobart's Sandy Bay Bowls Club held a celebration on Monday to mark 180 years since the first recorded game in Australia.
That match took place a few kilometres up the road at the then-named Beach Tavern between English immigrant and father-of-19 Frederick Lipscombe and T Burgess.
'We know it was 25 ends, which started the tradition of 25 ends in Australia,' Bowls Australia president Iain Evans said.
'Mr Burgess won on the very last end. It was a very close game.'
The sport, which has become intertwined with Australian culture and more recently, allowed players to forgo footwear, spread its wings to Sydney and Melbourne in the following decades.
The Hobart event featured a barbecue, tea and coffee and sandwiches, while young and old got to have a crack on the green.
Bowls Australia used the anniversary to ramp up its push for the sport's inclusion in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Australian
an hour ago
- The Australian
Coventry's mettle tested by Russian Olympic debate, say former IOC figures
International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry is in the spotlight on how she handles her "baptism of fire" over Russia, former IOC executives have told AFP. With just six months to go to the opening ceremony for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games the odds are that Russian athletes -- normally a Winter Games superpower -- will have to compete under a neutral banner, owing to the country breaching the Olympic Charter. The IOC excluded the Russian NOC after it had placed under its authority several sports organisations from Ukrainian regions that Russian forces now occupy. That move came after President Vladimir Putin -- not for the first time in his country's turbulent relationship with the IOC -- broke the Olympic Truce when he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. When the IOC under Thomas Bach -- and with Coventry a member of the Executive Committee -- permitted Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at the Paris Summer Olympics last year, some federations took a far harsher line. World Athletics barred all athletes from Russia and its allies Belarus from its competitions, as did other federations. The scenario is no different for winter sports, with the International Ski Federation (FIS), which is responsible for more than half the Olympic medal events, biathlon and luge taking a similar stance, though figure skating has not followed suit. Michael Payne, a former head of IOC marketing, told AFP there is "no question that Russia at some stage has to be brought back in from the cold" -- but the 2026 Winter Games will come too soon. "Kirsty Coventry is in the spotlight, everyone is watching everyone," he said. "There will be strong views and opinions no matter what decision you take. You will have various politicians using that decision to make a point, (and it) probably won't always be complimentary. "You are walking on thin ice. I think the right thing is to say you cannot rush this, you cannot blindside different stakeholders and politicians. "The political challenges facing a new IOC president was always going to be a baptism of fire." - 'Complex problems' - Payne said Russia was the "elephant in the room" for all of Bach's 12-year tenure, from the two invasions of Ukraine to the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The 67-year-old Irishman says the challenge for Coventry is that politicians are seeking "to weaponise the sports agenda" once again having largely stayed away during earlier eras, such as that of Juan Antonio Samaranch's tenure from 1980-2001. "One of Samaranch's great achievements was to bury the boycott agenda and for the better part of three decades or more politicians generally left sport alone," said Payne, who is credited with overhauling the IOC's brand and finances through sponsorship during Samaranch's reign. "Under Bach, with the Russia/Ukraine agenda, politics re-entered it and navigating an ever more complicated global political environment and keeping sport out of the crossfire is going to tax any leader. "A new leader is going to have their hands full." Another former IOC marketing executive, Terrence Burns, knows Russia well having first worked there in 1992 as Delta Air Lines' country marketing manager for the entity then known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. "There's no shortcut back in," Burns told AFP, adding that Russia "has never really owned up to any of it". "There's been no admission, no accountability. Zero," the American said. "That leaves the IOC in a tough but manageable spot. "If Russia wants back in, it's going to have to show it's willing to change." Burns, who later played a key role in five successful Olympic bid city campaigns, argued however that in the end Russia is integral to the Olympics. "The Olympics need Russia at the Games, just as they need the USA, China, etc," said Burns. "The true Olympic thesis is 'we all belong, or no one does.' That works fine in theory, speeches, and marketing campaigns. "Translating it into the real geopolitical world is a hell of a lot harder than it looks." Burns believes the Russians should not expect a speedy return. "People always want simple answers for complex problems," he said. "But the IOC cannot afford simplistic solutions because the universality that it espouses may well be the last, truly global theology upon all humanity can agree. "Yes, I think the stakes are that big. (Coventry) knows this too and she won't be pressed into a 'convenient decision.'" pi/gj
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Every second counts: Bush galloper set to go past Tom Melbourne's mark
She's the country version of racing's favourite runner-up, Tom Melbourne, only Dollar Magic has seen her rack up 14 second placings in 28 starts. And if she goes one better on Saturday at Randwick, either to 15 seconds, or even a fifth win, her Scone trainer and part-owner Scott Singleton will be happy. 'The fact that they earn such good prize money running second, it takes the frustration out of it because you feel like a winner anyway,' said Singleton, who owns 20 per cent of the galloper, which has earned $559,690 from 28 starts. 'But that last start, you can't say she ran second because she wants to. You could just tell she was trying her heart out. It's just how it's worked out with her. 'I wouldn't say it's frustrating. I'd just love her to win one for her.' Now-retired Tom Melbourne, an import bought for just $7800, rose to cult status with 14 seconds and just five wins across 50 Australian starts, often at stakes level, to earn $1.4 million. While Dollar Magic has never challenged those heights, she is a consistent performer, winning four races and missing a place just six times. Twelve of her runner-up efforts have been on a Saturday in town. Her only Saturday metro win came at home, on Scone's annual standalone meeting, last year. The seven-year-old mare, a homebred daughter of Shamus Award for Singleton's long-time clients Wal and Anne Lanham, went to 14 seconds last time out at Rosehill in a 1200m fillies and mares benchmark 78 handicap on July 19. She returns to town for an identical race, the third on the card, and Singleton is confident she can challenge again. Out of the Lanhams' mare Last Dollars, Dollar Magic was matched with Shamus Award when he stood for $22,000 at Widden Stud.
The Age
4 hours ago
- The Age
Every second counts: Bush galloper set to go past Tom Melbourne's mark
She's the country version of racing's favourite runner-up, Tom Melbourne, only Dollar Magic has seen her rack up 14 second placings in 28 starts. And if she goes one better on Saturday at Randwick, either to 15 seconds, or even a fifth win, her Scone trainer and part-owner Scott Singleton will be happy. 'The fact that they earn such good prize money running second, it takes the frustration out of it because you feel like a winner anyway,' said Singleton, who owns 20 per cent of the galloper, which has earned $559,690 from 28 starts. 'But that last start, you can't say she ran second because she wants to. You could just tell she was trying her heart out. It's just how it's worked out with her. 'I wouldn't say it's frustrating. I'd just love her to win one for her.' Now-retired Tom Melbourne, an import bought for just $7800, rose to cult status with 14 seconds and just five wins across 50 Australian starts, often at stakes level, to earn $1.4 million. While Dollar Magic has never challenged those heights, she is a consistent performer, winning four races and missing a place just six times. Twelve of her runner-up efforts have been on a Saturday in town. Her only Saturday metro win came at home, on Scone's annual standalone meeting, last year. The seven-year-old mare, a homebred daughter of Shamus Award for Singleton's long-time clients Wal and Anne Lanham, went to 14 seconds last time out at Rosehill in a 1200m fillies and mares benchmark 78 handicap on July 19. She returns to town for an identical race, the third on the card, and Singleton is confident she can challenge again. Out of the Lanhams' mare Last Dollars, Dollar Magic was matched with Shamus Award when he stood for $22,000 at Widden Stud.
