About the Tournament
Welcome to the new Worthing Unified Open Bowls Tournament 2009. This will be the very first fully Unified Open Bowls Tournament in the country that we are aware of. There are several “mixed’ tournaments but they are not completely unified. By 2008 it was apparent the sponsorship and external funding resources for the Mens Open was becoming more difficult to find. The event was a successful one and entries had been increasing year on year since 2005. The Ladies Open was suffering similar funding problems but in addition the number of entries had been decreasing year on year. It was time to re-think the agenda and together with Worthing Borough Council we sat down and explored some radical solutions. The obvious one was staring us in the face! Unify the tournaments under one flag and adopt the format that everything ‘bowls’ will ultimately move towards by making the two previous events into one and opening it to Men and Women to enter in any combination they wished. The usual complaint that men are physically stronger could not be validated as the tournament dates would follow on the heels of The National Bowls Finals at Beach House Park and the greens will be running at their quickest and smoothest and won’t present difficulty in terms of bodily strength. So everything down to a contest purely based around skill and strategy then, which is after all what the sport of bowls is ultimately about. However, we knew there would still be some who would take exception to competing against the opposite gender so we ensured the Premier event of the tournament, the Singles would attract a significant prize purse in order to sweeten the pill for those individuals who needed it. We make no bones about it the £1,500.00 Singles Championship prize is a little tempter and not just for the aforesaid reason.
It will we hope, attract some of the better players around the country to come and try their luck.....and for those who say it will bring in the pot hunters, well some will appear we are certain but they are under even more pressure to perform because as we all know the tournament is an OPEN and that means virtually anyone will be able to enter and by virtue of it being an OPEN the playing form of an individual bowler is no guide to their success as anyone of any ability has an opportunity to win and that is what makes the Unified Open and even bigger draw as it could be either gender who prevail through to the final! If you are reading this then you are interested in bowls so go along to the Official Entry Form Page download the entry form and come to the tournament. We are sure it will be a success and an immense draw. There is bound to be significant press and sporting interest and the first winners of the first ever unified bowls tournament will make a little bit of bowls history.........and in Worthing the spiritual home of bowls to boot. Certainly no bad thing!