Bowls Premier League

The Bowls Premier League (BPL) is a biannual bowls competition involving teams from around Australia. The competition was founded in 2013 as a way to popularise the sport by presenting in a modernised format, using the term "made-for-television" in its promotion. The competition features faster play, modified rules, colourful clothing and comprehensive television coverage.

Bowls Premier League
FormerlyAustralian Premier League
SportBowls
Founded2013
No. of teams8
CountriesAustralia
Most recent
champion(s)		Murray Steamers
Most titlesSydney Lions (3)
TV partner(s)Fox Sports, Sky Sport
Official websitehttp://www.bowls.com.au/events-page/national-events/bowls-premier-league

The BPL was founded by Bowls Australia and was initially contested by teams from the five major Australian cities plus a New Zealand side and has since expanded to eight clubs. The week-long event attracts a large number of Australia's best bowls players to compete, as well as several high-profile bowlers from overseas.

History

The first edition of the competition was held in November, 2013 under the name Australian Premier League. The inaugural clubs were Adelaide Endurance, Brisbane Gold, Melbourne Roys, New Zealand Blackjacks, Perth Suns and Sydney Lions, with Brisbane winning the first title.[1]

Two further teams – the Murray Steamers and the Gold Coast Hawks – joined the competition in 2014 to expand the competition to eight. The Murray Steamers defeated Adelaide Endurance in the final of the 2014 competition to be champions for the second running of the event.

In 2016, Bowls Australia announced there would be two tournaments held per year starting from 2017, with one event staged in Auckland in addition to the traditional event at Club Pine Rivers in Brisbane, Queensland.[2] The competition also underwent a name change to reflect the inclusion of the New Zealand leg, renaming to Bowls Premier League.

The Australian leg of the BPL has always been held in November while the first edition of the New Zealand event was held in March.

Adelaide Endurance were be replaced by Illawarra Gorillas in 2017.[3]

In February 2020, Moama Bowling Club hosted the first BPL outside of Brisbane and New Zealand, with the New Zealand version of the event heading to the Victoria-NSW border town until at least 2022.[4]

BPL10 marked a significant shift in the competition as three teams - Gold Coast Hawks, Illawarra Gorillas and New Zealand Blackjacks - did not renew their licence. This opened the door to three new teams - Adelaide Pioneers, Melbourne Pulse and Tweed Heads Ospreys.[5][6]

Competition format

Each match consists of a two five-end sets, with a one-end tie-break played if required. The game format is pairs, with three bowls for each player per end. A team coach also has a substitute player at their disposal which must be used during the game, but only immediately preceding the delivery of a bowl by their team player. Every player in the team, including the sub, must bowl at least nine bowls per game. The team with that wins both sets, or one set and then the tie-break, is the winner.

Instead of spending time rolling the jack, as per normal competitions, the players place the mat and advise the marker the length of the jack they would like to play to. Players have a 30-second shot clock in which they must deliver their bowl from the time the jack is placed at the start of an end or once their opposition bowl has come to a rest. Teams can nominate one Power Play end per set, enabling teams to earn double the shots scored in that end.

Finals system

Each of the eight teams play each other twice during the competition. At the end of the double round-robin, the top four teams in the standings play off in the finals series. If teams on the ladder are equal on points they will be split on net total shots (shots for minus shots against). The finals series includes straight eliminations and double-chance matches.

  Semi-final / Elimination final Preliminary final Final
                           
1 First place team    
2 Second place team           W-A Winner of semi-final  
      L-A Loser of semi-final     W-C Winner of preliminary final  
  W-B Winner of elimination final    
3 Third place team  
4 Fourth place team    

The top two teams in the ladder play in a semi-final with the winner advancing straight ahead into the final. The loser of the semi-final will play in the preliminary final against the winner of the elimination final, a match contested between the third and fourth-placed sides where the loser is knocked out immediately. The winner of the preliminary final goes into the final.

The winning team receives $25,000 in prize money.

Event structure

Originally, BPL competitions began on a Thursday and ended on Sunday. That was eventually changed, with competitions beginning on a Tuesday and ending on a Friday evening.

Each BPL competition runs over the course of four days at one venue in a double round-robin and finals (playoffs) system; this makes for a total of 14 rounds consisting of four matches in each round. Four rounds are held on each of the first three days with two more on the fourth day, followed by the finals in the evening.

The first New Zealand edition of the competition in March, 2017 had its event held from Monday through to Thursday.

All four matches in the final round of each day are televised on Fox Sports in Australia and Sky Sport in New Zealand, as well as through digital streaming platform Kayo. Additional matches are also televised at the Brisbane event, with the addition of the BPL Cup.

Bowls Australia also livestream round robin matches during the day via Facebook, using their popular Rinkside Live service.

Clubs
Team name LocationFranchise OwnerCoachFirst seasonTitlesLast title
Adelaide Pioneers Adelaide, SA Adelaide Bowling Club Les Carter 2019 - -
Brisbane Pirates[7] Brisbane, Qld Club Pine Rivers Dave Edwards 2013 2 2018
Melbourne Pulse Melbourne, Vic Dandenong Club Mark Casey 2019 - -
Melbourne Roys Melbourne, Vic Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club Ian "JR" Ewing 2013 - -
Murray Steamers Moama, NSW Moama Bowling Club David Ferguson 2014 2 2020
Perth Suns Perth, WA Bowls WA Ross Dempsey 2013 - -
Sydney Lions Sydney, NSW Club Mount Lewis Steve Glasson OAM 2013 3 2017
Tweed Heads Ospreys Tweed Heads Tweed Heads Bowls Club Wayne Turley OAM 2019 1 2019

Former clubs
Team name LocationFranchise ownerCoachFirst seasonLast seasonTitlesLast title
Adelaide Endurance Adelaide, SA Bowls SA Mark Haines 2013 2017 - -
Gold Coast Hawks Gold Coast, Qld Club Helensvale Nathan Rice 2014 2019 1 2018
Illawarra Gorillas Illawarra, NSW Warilla Bowls and Recreation Club Wes Falconer 2017 2019 1 2019
New Zealand Blackjacks New Zealand Bowls NZ Sharon Sims 2013 2019 1 2015

Champions
Year Edition Location Winner Score Runner-up MVP
2013 APL01 Brisbane Brisbane Gold 7-4, 8-2 Adelaide Endurance Scott Thulborn (Adelaide Endurance)
2014 APL02 Murray Steamers 6-2, 5-3 Adelaide Endurance Alex Marshall (Murray Steamers)
2015 APL03 New Zealand Blackjacks 6-3, 0-8, 1-0 Adelaide Endurance Mark Casey (Gold Coast Hawks)
2016 BPL04 Sydney Lions 6-4, 10-6 Murray Steamers Ryan Bester (Murray Steamers)
2017 BPL05 Auckland (NZ) Sydney Lions 3-2, 6-3 New Zealand Blackjacks Shannon McIlroy (New Zealand Blackjacks)
BPL06 Brisbane Sydney Lions 10-0, 8-1 Illawarra Gorillas Aron Sherriff (Sydney Lions)
2018 BPL07 Wellington (NZ) Gold Coast Hawks 5-3, 7-7 Brisbane Pirates Aron Sherriff (Gold Coast Hawks)
BPL08 Brisbane Brisbane Pirates 9-2, 6-2 Murray Steamers Ryan Bester (Murray Steamers)
2019 BPL09 Lower Hutt (NZ) Illawarra Gorillas 6-9, 7-1, 1-0 Brisbane Pirates Alex Marshall (Brisbane Pirates)
BPL10 Brisbane Tweed Heads Ospreys 9-0, 8-1 Sydney Lions Aaron Teys (Tweed Heads Ospreys) [8]
2020 BPL11 Moama Murray Steamers 6-1, 3-11, 1-0 Melbourne Roys Aron Sherriff (Sydney Lions) and Aaron Wilson (Melbourne Roys)[9]

Championships by club
Team Champions Runners-up Years won
Sydney Lions 3 1 2016, 2017a, 2017b
Murray Steamers 2 2 2014, 2020
Brisbane Gold/Pirates 2 2 2013, 2018
New Zealand Blackjacks 1 1 2015
Illawarra Gorillas 1 1 2019
Tweed Heads Ospreys 1 0 2019
Gold Coast Hawks 1 0 2018
Adelaide Endurance 0 3 -
Melbourne Roys 0 1 -

a denotes title won in year's first event in Auckland

b denotes title won in year's second event in Brisbane

BPL Cup

In 2017, Bowls Australia announced the introduction of the BPL Cup,[10] a nationwide tournament for all clubs in the same mould as football cup competitions, such as the FA Cup.

Each of the eight Australian states and territories hold statewide competitions for all bowls clubs where an eventual state winner will progress to the national BPL Cup finals at Club Pine Rivers.

BPL Cup Champions
Year Club State Players
2017 Club Merrylands NSW Michael Clarke, Neil Burkett, Shawn Thompson
2018 Narrabri NSW Graham Spence, Cameron Yates and Peter Hobday
2019 South Perth WA Glenn Pauling, Scott Walker, Ashley Sharp

References
  1. "Brisbane's panning for Gold pays off". Australian Premier League. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  2. "Second annual $100,000 Premier League announced". Australian Premier League. 12 July 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  3. "Illawarra Gorillas muscle in on BPL06". Australian Premier League. 21 September 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  4. "Bowls Premier League: Moama confirmed as February host venue until 2022". Bowls Australia. 20 August 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  5. "Bowls Premier League: Adelaide and Tweed Heads confirmed for #BPL10". Bowls Australia. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  6. "Dandenong Club poised to enter the BPL". Bowls Australia. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  7. The Brisbane team were known as Brisbane Gold until 2016.
  8. "#BPL10: Teys shines to collect tournament MVP". Bowls Australia. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  9. "#BPL11: Sherriff, Wilson share MVP honours". Bowls Australia. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  10. "BPL Cup". Bowls Australia. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
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