Under the national squad system reformation adopted earlier this year, the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association has announced the list of bowlers who qualified for selection as Hong Kong squad members for the year to come.
The list of 24 men and 24 women was based on the points the bowlers accumulated at premier competitions over the last three years.
The men’s list included 11 existing Hong Kong team members while the women list has 12. The majority of the men came from Kowloon Bowling Green Club (7), while the main supplier for the women is Hong Kong Football Club (5).
Replacing the previous system of the top 15 bowlers of each gender automatically included in the squad, the list of players were invited to assessment trials in May, which will be conducted by a team led by the National Coach, Rita Shek. The results will decide the final 15 squad members, and three reserves, who will represent Hong Kong in the coming 12 months.
While there will not be major tournaments at world level this year, the focus will now be on the Asia Championship in October, according to Heron Lau, the Vice President in charge of international at HKLBA.
“The results in this competition are very important for us to keep our status as the Tier-B Elite Sport under the Hong Kong Sports Institute,” he said.
“Hence we need our best players for this event.
“The new arrangement of having the top 24 players from each gender allows us a wider selection of bowlers for the squad. The assessment trials also ensure that the players are technically equipped for the challenges,” said Lau.
On the other hand, more commitment is required by the squad players, including: attendance at regular training sessions; and availability for international tournaments.
“This requires the squad members to take responsibility after consuming our resources to develop them. By this we can also field our strongest possible squad for key competitions,” explained Lau.
The Asia Championship is scheduled for Oct 9-18, at Xinxiang, Henan. A selection camp is scheduled in August at the same venue to pick the squad for the competition.
“This is an important step in the build-up to the Asia Championship as it allows selectors to make a judgement based on the players’ actual performance at the venue. With such preparation we should be able to get good results,” concluded Lau.
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
