TASMANIA TO DEBUT IN LAWN BOWLS NATIONAL LEAGUE
Another Tasmanian team will make its debut appearance when the Tasmania Tridents take part in lawn bowls’ showpiece television event, the Bowls Premier League, which will be held at Moama in New South Wales from Monday to Friday next week.
The Bowls Tasmania-owned Tridents have secured one of three new licences in an expanded ten-team competition, through funding contributed by the Tasmanian Government. The other new teams are the Gold Coast Hawks and Melbourne Extreme.
The Tasmania Tridents has an all-Tasmanian line-up headlined by dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist and world champion Rebecca Van Asch who will guide the Tridents’ maiden journey, alongside the experienced hand of former Australian Indoor Championships runner-up Mark Nitz and reigning Tasmanian Champion of Champion winner Taelyn Male, with one-time Australian Jackaroo Mark Strochnetter assuming the coaching duties.
The three-pronged Tridents moniker was chosen to represent the three regions of Tasmania and the three Tasmanian players that will carry the state’s hopes on the national stage.
Bowls Australia CEO and BPL Chair Neil Dalrymple said the debut was an historic coup for the bowls-loving region. “It’s exciting to see the proud and passionate bowls state of Tasmania given the opportunity to compete and showcase their talent on the sport’s biggest stage,” Dalrymple said.
“This also underlines the evolution of the coveted competition, with more teams, more matches, more prize-money and more broadcast hours for each future BPL staging to help keep the sport and its players in the spotlight.”
Bowls Tasmania President Graham Hay said that Tasmania had long wanted to be part of the BPL competition to promote themselves on the sport’s biggest stage and was appreciative of the Tasmanian Government’s assistance. “With considerable assistance from the State Government, Bowls Tasmania has been able to work with Bowls Australia to ensure the establishment of a Tasmanian team in Bowls Australia’s top-level event, the Bowls Premier League,” Hay said.
“The provision of a pathway for bowlers in the state to progress their bowls and aspire for greater rewards has been limited in the past; the Bowls Premier League now provides that vehicle for which we can now showcase the tremendous talent that we have in our state.
“Success of the program will not be measured in prize-money won, but players drafted to national squads and the greater community awareness and participation rates in the sport here in Tasmania.”
The event will be shown live on Fox Sports, Kayo and Sky Sport NZ from 4pm-10pm AEST each night, with additional live-streaming through Facebook during the daytime rounds.
The first television game for the Tasmanian Tridents will be on Tuesday 22 February 2022 at 4pm against Melbourne Pulse. The game will be telecast live on Fox Sports and Kayo – it would be great if Clubs have a member who is a Fox Sports or Kayo subscriber who could cast the game onto the big screen at your Club and have a Trident party to watch the game live and support our own home-grown star players. (It could also be a good fund-raiser for your Club.) Kayo also offers new subscribers a 14 day free trial with no commitment to go beyond the initial 14 days!
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