TBAQ announce new Rachuig Format

[GeorgeF]

The obvious location for run the roll offs is either Mackay or Kirwan. They are both relatively central and both have Kegels and Synthetics. Why wouldn't bowlers be able to participate in both roll offs?

I can't say I agree with this format but it is my own fault for not attending the meeting. Having the Nationals venue on our door step why are we even considering a Northern roll off? What if bowlers from North Queensland can't bowl well at Mt Gravatt? How are you going to replicate conditions in NQ?

Can bowlers who reside in Brisbane attend only the NQ roll off?

 

[Morty]

Welcome back George, Congrats on your Effort at the World Cup. Well Bowled. As to your recent post I thought I should assist you in better understanding the format.

As Mentioned in the Brief on TBAQ’s website, Bowlers may bowl in either roll off so yes a player in Brisbane who was unable to attend the SQ Trail for say work commitments could travel to NQ for Roll off up there.

Bowlers will be selected into a Squad from both Trails. It makes sense to have players only able to attend and nominate for one roll off. To put in Tournament language basically you bowl A squad or B Squad But not both. This is not multi entry.

I am sure that you would agree that simply believing that holding the roll off in the Center that the nationals are going to be at and on the conditions that we believe will be there will not guarantee that we will be bowling on come October. There are far to many What If’s to consider things like What if North Queensland Can’t bowl well At Mt Gravatt? What if we select a Team at Mt Gravatt and the Center Burns Down? A timely Comment after this year’s national!.

As a previous resident of North Queensland I am sure that you did not really mean “Why even consider a Northern Roll Off” The Queensland Team needs to be representative of our whole state and therefore MUST provide the opportunity for all bowlers to have a pathway to the elite level.

The New format will also ensure that the Queensland Team will correctly represent the full length of our state and ensure that we continue to meet the criteria that allow us the opportunity to field both a Queensland Team and an Invitational Team from both a TBA and TBAQ perspective.

It was Unfortunate that you were unable to attend that meeting as your input would have been excellent, however the board and the Adult committee needed to move forward. To date the feedback I have received has been positive so hopefully I have assisted in clarify your question and look forward to seeing your nomination along with many others.

 

[kenny]

georgy boy what are you on ?hmmmm mexican jumping beans or what ' anyhow send me some because we all need to smile a bit more . But really lets get this straight ,firstly are you going to commit to bowling rachuig this year yes or no ! 2nd are you the only north qld bowler capable to make the move south and perform well dont forget you cheat by playing on the funny side of the lane. 3rd where would qld be without the bowlers from nth qld (YOU).ive bowled a lot of rachuigs brother mostly winning ones and for years and years ive heard the argument if we played our strongest team we'd win well lets see how many dreamy creamy superstars come out to play . i hope im wrong mate but i think you and i know how many.........ZIP thats how many!

OTTY

 

[Shadows Fall]

Firstly George a huge congratulations on your efforts in Mexico you did Australia and yourself proud.

As far as your post goes I am more than willing to roll-off at Mt Gravatt or any other Brisbane centre for that matter, if you are going to pay for my travel etc.

It's easy for you to sit back in Brisbane and say that there shouldn't even be a Northern roll off, but what about us poor country hicks - you do know that the State of Queensland extends outside of Brisbane. Why should we be financially disadvantaged as a result of where we live.

Thankfully the TBAQ took a consultative approach and tried to work out a format that was fair and equal for everybody (not just those lucky people that reside in Bris Vegas)

"What if NQ Bowlers can't bowl well at Mt Gravatt"..... WTF!!!!! What if the left is blocked out and not a big open ditch what are you going to do???

This whole process and the efforts of TBAQ, Morty and few other people is to 1) Implement a selection process that is fair and encourages as many bowlers from through out Queensland to try out, 2) get the best possible Rachuig Team with a view to winning the trophy and 3) using the Invitational team to develop our Rachuig stars of the future.

This isn't about North or South Queensland, maybe if you actually bowl Rachuig with some of us Northerners you might find we have a bit to offer any team we are a part of.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Wild Turkey]

Roll off's at Mackay or Kirwan????????

I Still cannot believe that TBAQ want to have the Northern Roll off's in a centre that has a KEGEL and SYNTHETIC lanes. Our centres were chosen in May this year and it was to be at Innisfail and Burdekin. All of a sudden they want to try and replicate a condition???? so they try and change the venue.

Unless TBAQ are God there is absolutley no way they could replicate Mt Gravatt's condition up here in the North, even with synthetics and a kegel, does anyone take into account humidity etc.

In my eyes if you can score well on WOOD and Non-Sanction machines then you can most definatley absolutley carve it on SYNTHETIC & KEGEL.

Just my 2 cents

Frank

 

[Thumpa]

Gee George
Oh to live in a perfect world like you do I've seen some of your results you don't bowl good in every tournament you enter.
The shame of it all is the you are a Nth Qlder, yeah good on you for moving away from hicksville but the point of the matter is you once again are putting down your fellow Nth Qlders there are many capable bowlers up here but due to distance and finances are unable to jump on their lear jets and fly to every tournament they want to. Just when the TBAQ are trying to get the South and the North to unify you go in and stir the pot again honestly George grow up

 

[Andrew S.]

I'm not going to enter the NQ location debate other than to state the obvious that a roll-off held over 1 weekend would be a lot cheaper than over two, and it also has to be taken into consideration that the nomination fee was costed to help fly Selectors to and from one only North Based City.

A reasonable suggestion might be to hold the roll-off at Townsville and co-incide it with the NQ AGM to be held on Feb 21.

All the movers and shakers of NQ bowling will be in town that week-end and TBAQ also sends Board Members to that meeting.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Andrew,

Your reasonable suggestion is ordinary.

Does this mean that every year the 2 centres in Townsville get to share the rolloff's,

Hence, they get the revenue made from the rolloff???

So Mackay, Burdekin, Innisfail, Atherton, Cairns, Mount Isa all lose potential revenue.

And what happens in the South Queensland Area, Does Brisbane get to host the rolloff's every year or does it go out of the city to regional centres

Frank

 

[Morty]

Frank,

As long as I have been bowling Rachuig the Roll offs have been in The Brisbane Area. I think this is has been driven by two main factors.

1. The Centres in the Brisbane Area's are the ones that Tender for the
roll offs and
2. It is where the majority of the bowlers who are rolling off reside. It
makes sense to limit the amount of travelling that is required for
everyone that is concerned so a few travel for the benefit of the
many.

I think Centers have also been approached and selected in the past based on there assistance with providing different lane conditions. Just FYI


Cheers

 

[E-J]

The obvious location for run the roll offs is either Mackay or Kirwan. They are both relatively central and both have Kegels and Synthetics. QUOTE]

Mackay Relatively central???? It is the southern most City mate?

For your information Innisfail now has synthetics and a Kegel Kustodian PLus lane machine, but that fact should be irrelevent mate.

The bottom line is that the decision was made by our NQAC to have the roll off in two locations (in regional centres OUTSIDE Townsville for once) to "BOOST PARTICIPATION" and lift the profile of Rachuig in NQ. After all arent we trying to build our sport for the greater good? Not trying to bury it?

This situation begs the question A - What is the point of us having an NQAC to make decisions about our representative teams when B - TBAQ clearly has no respect for those decisions.

A point of note - I think the format and selection criteria is EXCELLENT!!! To bring the best bowlers from the State together. I also think that our roll off should be on a circuit to complement our existing NQ championships and intercity Shield that are already on a circuit. We need to share the love here people LOL

I am fully supporting Frank, Angelo and the Burdekin Bowl on this one

 

[~*PuNk PrInCeSs*~]

haha. mackay is central to what? the canefields?
thats an eight hour drive there for me, nine hours for mum.
and flying there is WAAAY too expensive.

you obviously do not realise how big north queensland actually is.
nothings just a simple hour's drive away like it is down in brisbane.

mt isa is about a 14hr drive, mackay as i already stated is eight.
then add a return journey onto that.


now tell me how central it is?



Larissa Nastasi

 

[Andrew S.]

[This situation begs the question A - What is the point of us having an NQAC to make decisions about our representative teams when B - TBAQ clearly has no respect for those decisions.

With respect Ed, the first TBAQ heard of this decision was last Tuesday when Angelo phoned Gordon.
None of us at TBAQ had the faintest idea that NQ had selected Centres for roll-offs.
Had we been aware of the NQ decision we would never have gone public without having resolved the matter first.

 

[E-J]

With respect Ed, the first TBAQ heard of this decision was last Tuesday when Angelo phoned Gordon.
None of us at TBAQ had the faintest idea that NQ had selected Centres for roll-offs.
Had we been aware of the NQ decision we would never have gone public without having resolved the matter first.

Just so you know, this isn't "Ed" as in Edmond Starkey NQAC President, this is his son E-J who owns Innisfail Sugarbowl Lanes. (Just to clarify)

Andrew, I do not believe that TBAQ had no idea of these decisions and if they didn't there should have been adequate NQ representation at the meeting. Last Monday, before the public release, there was a meeting in Brisbane to discuss the new format. There were NQ members present at that meeting that were fully aware of this situation. Knowing who was actually present, would it be inappropriate of me assume that they didn't speak up because it was in their best interest not to? I think you know what I am saying. What I want to know is why there was a meeting without the knowledge of the NQAC executive and why others had knowledge of the decisions before our NQAC president and executive. This is simply not good enough.

I want my position made clear to TBAQ that I strongly support the format they have proposed, just that for the first year you cant just wipe out the decision for the roll-off centres (be it miscommunication or not)

 

[Andrew S.]

Thank you for the clarification E-J.
So if I understand rightly, your Centre was awarded the roll-off by the NQAC of which your Father is the Chairperson?

 

[E-J]

Yes thats right mate. Don McKay, Vice Chair, was the person who thought of the idea to bring roll off to the regional centres to lift the profile and awareness of the Rachuig process. It was met with 100% support from the centres at the NQAC meeting.

I strongly believe that the Roll-off should be on a circuit between all NQ centres like we run our championships etc. Why should Townsville have the roll-off all the time when they already have the population and turn over to do without it. A great example of this is the junior presidents shield rolloff recently were out of the 20 bowlers that will be representing NQ only three are from Townsville and the majority are from other centres, mostly populated by Cairns bowlers. Moving around the rolloff also widens your scope to get bowlers interested, mostly once people get the feel for competitive bowling they will travel to keep competing. In the long run it will broaden and develop more bowlers to choose from, and everybody knows what that will breed - a stronger team

 

[RobbieB]

Andrew,
I believe that was uncalled for. The Chair does not get a vote, only the delegates do.

I have responded to EJ's other comments by pm.

This issue is too important to degrade to the typical North-South bickering. The obvious solution is to set Innisfail as the host for 2009, Burdekin for 2010 and review the situation thereafter.

 

[Morty]

EJ,

You asked a Question so I guess it needs an answer. Yes. It is inappropriate to ask, indicate or in any other way imply that Robbie and Steve didn’t speak up regarding roll offs because it was in their best interests.

I think it is important that everyone is aware that Robbie, Steve and I attended initially to ensure that TBAQ still considered accepting the invitation from TBA. I think it is also important that you are FULLY AWRE that without the support from Steve and Robbie I don’t think that I would have been sufficiently armed to convince TBAQ to reverse their decision and to continue to support the Invitation from TBA.

Which means we would have been fielding a single team next year? A situation which I am sure that you would agree would not have been ideal. After I contacted Andrew regarding attending the Board meeting I made many phone calls to the players that I had been away with generating support. I travelled to the Townsville Open and spent time with all the players who wanted to talk about Rachuig so I at least had a feeling of what they wanted.

I rang and rang and rang and rang and emailed and emailed and emailed your North Queensland Representative on the TBAQ Board Kay Harris. I still have received no response. I spoke with Jeff Ott and Stephen Hunt and Robbie B regarding Kay and they followed up and made sure that you had Representation at the meeting.

I can assure you I did try and get as much information as I could prior to attending the meeting. However to indicate that there was some hidden agenda by those who attended on North Queensland behalf is not true. The only agenda was to ensure that Queensland and the Whole of Queensland had a voice regarding Rachuig.

And while I am from the South, I would hope that others from the team last year and who were present at the many conversations regarding keeping the invitational team alive will hop on here and voice also the fact that Robbie and Steve actions were for the benefit of North Queensland Bowling, to ensure that your voice was heard, that a selection process was in place that allowed all of Queensland to participate equally.

It is so easy to sit in a bus or talk at Dinner and voice your opinion. It is understandable that not everyone has the time or personality that allows them to act on the outcomes of these conversations but everyone that was at those conversations should put their hand up now and say this has to stop we asked Rob and Steve to voice our ideas and they did, support them now like they supported you at the board meeting. If you don’t then I did not really learn anything about being a North Queenslander……

 

[Shadows Fall]

E-J,

To imply that my intentions were in some way nefarious, self serving or underhanded is really small minded and ridiculous on your part (maybe you should lay off the sugar cane or whatever else you smoke up there )

The SOLE (i.e. the only) reason that I went to the meeting a few weeks ago regarding Rachuig was to ensure that there was still going to be two Queensland Rachuig teams to ensure that ALL NQ bowlers had an equal opportunity to have a shot at bowling Rachuig.

Would you have preferred it if Robbie and I didn't go and then we could have only had one team, and everyone had to travel to Brisbane??

I was there purely to provide a voice from the bowlers perspective and to let TBAQ know about how passionate we are up here about bowling in general and especially representing our State.

The whole purpose of that meeting (or the part that I was present for) was to implement a roll off system that is fair for every bowler in Queensland, in an effort to get the highest participation rates possible. I truly believe the new format is a great one.

So E-J next time put your brain in gear and get a few facts, before you go casting dispersions about people.

Cheers

Steve

 

[kenny]

I fully support morty steve and robbie in what they have done ,i personally asked steve if he could go to this meeting as i had to work it was TOTALY about all of us , I mean US being able to put foward our view of rachuig and how in this unbelievable size state we in the nth dont get passed over by tbab if you know what i mean. To say anything else is ludicris . STEVE HUNT rachuig captain MORTY DOUGLESS FORMER RACHUIG CAPTAIN ROB BUCKLY rachuig player and myself GEOFF OTT RACHUIG PLAYER AND MANAGER were the only ones who stood up to be counted . this wasnt about where to have a rolloff it was to ensure our voice was heard so we can have one. these 3 people i support without reservation OTTY grrrrr

 

[Fitzy]

Just a quick few questions about this debate from someone that does not fully understand the situation anyway, but, did not the roll offs get alternated between NQ and SQ rotationally each year anyways? NQ had the roll offs in 2008? so it would have been in SQ (only) in 2009 if the status quo was still in place?

If the above are correct then I see TBAQ has had the balls to make a change that has been long overdue to (this year help NQ bowlers, but,) help bowlers from all over Queensland have the chance to roll off for Rachuig EVERY YEAR rather than bi-yearly.

I personally think we all should be supporting this decision as it helps ALL Queensland, not just us in the south or those in the north. Lets be Queensland and kill the NQ/SQ thing. Maybe in a few years this format may allow that to happen (here's hoping).

my $0.05.

Rhyss.