Boom time in bowls participation.

Bowls Central, although very popular now in relation to when I started the site 5 years ago, is still what could be termed a “niche” website. The audience for a site like Bowls Central is never going to be easy to find online. Due to this fact, I now spend a lot of time promoting the site on social media such as Twitter to get the site in front of new readers.

To monitor the success (or otherwise) of these campaigns I use software that allows me to see how many people interact with the messages I put out there. When I tweet about an article on bowls central I can usually be sure of between 5 and 10 people clicking through to read the article, some of whom might become regular readers or maybe even join as a free member of Bowls Central which gives them full access to nearly 300 articles on the site.

I also monitor the news being released about lawn bowls and sometimes tweet links to articles that I think my Twitter followers might like.

Imagine my surprise then when Read more

February 17, 2016

Getting your feet in the right place.

In today’s Bowls Tip video, John Tiplady, the creator of Tippers Chalkies, introduces a failsafe method for getting your feet in the right position. The advice John gives on arm movements (your arm should be free to move like a pendulum) and comfort is, again, so simple but so obviously coming from a highly experienced bowler. OK, the sunshine helps too I suppose…enjoy today’s video lesson:

February 12, 2016

Organic Matter, Soil Moisture and Bowls Green Performance

Soil Moisture and Bowls Green Performance are so closely linked that we assume we know everything there is to know about it. More sand will make it better surely? Master Greenkeeper John Quinn has been digging a little deeper than most and putting his students to work on some experiments to get to the root of truly High Performance Bowls Greens.

February 8, 2016

Bowls Coaches and Umpires we need you!

Calling all bowls Coaches and Umpires

Bowls Central has been delivering greenkeeping and club management advice for 5 years now and we have grown a substantial readership as a result.

Now that the site is established as an online destination for bowlers and clubs looking for help, I’d like to expand the range of advice offered.

In particular I see a need for detailed articles on the following subject areas:

The Rules of the game (all disciplines and federations) and the decisions that are made about these during matches by Umpires.
Coaching techniques and advice for players to help them improve their game and advice on how to deliver effective coaching at club level.

With this in mind, I’d like to ask if you, or any of your friends have experience in either of these fields and would be interested in writing an article, a series of articles or even a regular column for Bowls Central?

I’d like to see this type of help expanded as much as our readership feels it needs to be on Bowls Central so am happy to support you in any way I can to help you deliver advice on these subjects. There is no direct payment available for this work, but depending on the quality and frequency of articles you are able to provide, we can support writers in some or all of the following:

Editing and formatting articles for publication
Publicising your work through the site, our mailing list and our social media channels
Helping you to sell (on bowls central) any services or publications you’ve created that will be of benefit to our readership relating to these subject areas.
Help with design, editing, layout and publishing of any longer written works you create on these subjects.

Please feel free to reply with any questions you have about this, or to make a suggestion. I’d also be pleased if you could alert any of your friends or contacts who might be interested.

Please reply using the contact form.

Photo Credit: Julian Stallabrass via Compfight cc

February 2, 2016

Bowls green performance and Organic Matter

Bowls green performance and organic matter go hand in hand. In this article we continue to test our hypothesis about the effect Organic Matter has to bowls green surface performance. John compares the different kinds of organic matter in greens and shows how we can measure these to direct us to a better maintenance regime that focusses on performance and produces healthier greens and greens that are more economical to maintain.