Donaldson stirs up WIBC
NickY Donaldson's off-the-cuff comments about the way Guernsey's entry for the World Indoor Bowls Council men's and women's singles championships at Belfast were arrived seem to have opened a can of worms.
NickY Donaldson's off-the-cuff comments about the way Guernsey's entry for the World Indoor Bowls Council men's and women's singles championships at Belfast were arrived seem to have opened a can of worms. Brian Davies, secretary of the WIBC, who is also running the British Isles men's indoor championships in Perth this week, expressed surprise that a qualifying event had been staged in Guernsey.
'We certainly don't instruct, or expect, countries to run their own separate qualifiers, but neither are we in the business of telling them how to run their affairs,' Davies said.
'The WIBC championships are generally regarded as a reward for winning your national title, but we always point out that if your national champion is not available, the country may nominate a representative,' he said.
Eddie Robins, the Channel Islands' highly-respected team manager in Perth, said that Guernsey always held WIBC qualifiers in the days before the World Bowls Tour took over the world indoor championships.
'When the WIBC re-started their version of the world championships in 2000, it was the Guernsey champion who went to Belfast, but I understood that we had been told that we had to stage play-offs again this year,' Robins said.
'The ladies wanted a separate competition to produce their WIBC representative and I think we fell in line,' he added.
'If I'd known that the WIBC expected national champions to be nominated, I wouldn't have wanted to get involved in running the qualifiers. After what Brian has told us about how the other countries organise themselves, I'm sure we'll be discussing future arrangements at our next meeting later this month.'
Meanwhile, Donaldson was adamant that he had absolutely no complaints with the organisers and certainly bore no grudge against his close friend and pairs partner, Neal Mollet, who beat him in the final of the play-offs.
'All I did was express my disappointment that there had to be a special qualifying event held this year and that, as Guernsey champion, I didn't qualify automatically,' he said.
