I have been bowling now for 4 years and I recently put my name down to attend a bowler’s Marking course at San Luis with 2 other bowlers from the La Marina Bowls Club, Trevor Stemp and David Southwell.
There were 26 people on the course from 8 different bowls clubs. The course was well run by Gail & Fred Willshire who had clearly put in a lot preparation to run the course over two consecutive Saturdays 23/30 April between 10.00am & 4.30pm.
We received pre course e-mails from Gail with guidance and encouragement regarding reading the law book and links to videos on guidance with marking techniques along with links to the CBUMA website for some home study too.
On the first Saturday morning 4 hours were spent in the classroom discussing the best way to use the red Bowls Law book and we discussed various laws which was done in a well-structured manner with a bit of humour thrown in as well.
In the afternoon, we went outside to the bowls green where there was a total of 12 umpires that set up various scenarios to practice our marking and measuring techniques. It was interesting seeing and using the various measuring devices under the guidance of the umpires
On the second Saturday 30th April, we had an exam in the morning going through various question on the laws and rules of bowls. You get 3&1/2 hours to complete the exam which is plenty of time to answer the questions, write down the corresponding law number and check over your answers.
After Lunch we returned to the bowls green where we took turns to act as Markers in various scenarios set up by the 12 umpires that we could expect to encounter and have to mark at some point.
I know that Trevor, David and myself found the course very useful and it has certainly given us all a better understanding of the game of Bowls and I would encourage anyone that has not yet attended a markers course to keep an eye out for any future courses as they are certainly well worth attending.
Good luck to Gail & Fred and their team of umpires as they set up the next course in the 14th May at Javea, I trust the new students have been reading their Red Law Book …………..
