Chief exec pays price for success

MEN'S and women's outdoor bowls have formally amalgamated as the Bowls Guernsey Association. The move, agreed at a meeting last month, is a major development in chief executive Garry Collins' campaign to revolutionise the organisation of his sport.

But it has come at a personal cost to Collins, who has decided to stop playing while he continues to run the sport.

'A year ago I publicly stated I would make my sport administration better and bring it up to date,' he said. 'I think I made the difference.

'Last year has been busy, I have invested about 120 hours into the project, unpaid, but over the long run, it should save time.'

Collins has represented the island in British Isles competitions, but this winter has retired from the sport.

He said that his roles as selector and team manager, which precluded his inclusion for representative matches, including the Commonwealth Games, had affected his game.

'I felt that I had not been playing

as well as I know I can and in a way there was not much point in trying,' he said.

'So now I'm not playing at all, just concentrating on administration. I think I let the teams I was involved in down by not competing at the highest level.'

Collins accepted that his outspoken opinions when he took over as chief executive of men's bowls little more than 12 months ago caused a stir.

'But I think everyone realised it was beneficial to all and everyone at the meeting voted for the changes. Things are now 100% better.'

The Bowls Guernsey council, headed by president Ian Merrien, will take responsibility for all Guernsey outdoor bowls issues, local and international.

The Guernsey Bowls Association, which previously ran the men's game, and the Guernsey Women's Bowling Association, have now been wound up.

New sections of policy and development, finance and travel and membership and fixtures have been created.

Collins hopes that this could lead to the creation of new qualifying tournaments for international games and the introduction of coaching.

Mixed bowls is also being introduced.

'This is a step forward to start playing mixed bowls. World bowls is going this way and the more mixed bowls we can play, the better.'

Collins said he was delighted how people had been prepared to get involved in administration as improvements became evident.

'People are now willing to step in now the body is working well. Jobs I used to do other people are doing happily now.'