Top bowler Janice Gower hopes a 'wonderful' benefactor will build new centre for Fylde coast players and world champion Mark Dawes

Top bowler Janice Gower hopes “someone wonderful” will emerge to develop a new centre for the indoor game on the Fylde coast following the closure of the Blackpool Newton Hall Club.
Janice Gower faces a 180-mile round trip to the nearest indoor bowling centre following the closure of Blackpool Newton HallJanice Gower faces a 180-mile round trip to the nearest indoor bowling centre following the closure of Blackpool Newton Hall
Janice Gower faces a 180-mile round trip to the nearest indoor bowling centre following the closure of Blackpool Newton Hall
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Blackpool Newton Hall bowler Mark Dawes hopes magnificent world title double wil...

Blackpool Newton Hall’s Mark Dawes was crowned a double world champion for the second time on Sunday, though the game in the North West faces an uncertain future.

The owners of the Staining Road club announced last summer that it was not viable and would not be reopening after the pandemic.

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For Blackpool Newton Hall’s 475 members, the nearest similar facility is in Carlisle and Gower fears that could mean more people lost to the indoor game.

Lancaster-based Janice is, alongside Dawes, Blackpool Newton Hall’s most prominent player. Runner-up in the ladies’ world championship last year, she is a national singles and pairs champion, former European number one and an England international.

Janice, 48, told The Gazette: “Blackpool Newton Hall has closed for good for bowls, which leaves us with no indoor venue in the area. The closest for myself is Carlisle and that’s a round trip of 180 miles. For Mark, who is based in Greater Manchester, it’s Leeds.

“I did play out of Carlisle for 10 years but my work was more flexible then and I was single. But now it would be more difficult to get to matches with a full-time job and the travel expenses.

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“The Fylde coast area does scream out for a bowling stadium if someone wonderful has half a million pounds.

“Something along the M55, between Blackpool and Preston, would be ideal. People would come from all over the North West and a working party has been looking into it. You don’t need a centre as big as Newton Hall was and I hope we’ll find someone.

“I understand the thoughts of Partingtons (owners of Blackpool Newton Hall), who run the centre as a business and say the bowling was not viable moving forward, but from a bowls point of view it’s so sad for the area.”

Ironically, Dawes was still listed as a Blackpool Newton Hall player at these world championships in Norfolk.

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Gower added: “That’s because Blackpool is the last club he represented. I would be too if I was at Potters (the host venue in Hopton-on-Sea).

“We still have the unfinished national finals from last March and if they are ever played, which is doubtful, I would be representing Blackpool Newton Hall because that’s the club I qualified from.”

Gower was a notable absentee from this month’s world championships, unhappy at the changes of entry rules and the loss of her commentating role.

“They have gone down the road of entry by invitation,” she explained, “inviting some players who are not members of the Professional Bowls Association and it has caused issues.

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“Paid-up members who paid fees for qualifiers are missing out and there are some sore people. I feel sorry for young players who qualified and would have been at the event for the first time.”

But that didn’t prevent Janice supporting Dawes. She added: “Players like Mark do help us to fight the image of bowls as an old man’s game. Mark and myself aren’t at the older end and it’s a great sport to come into after playing another sport.”

Despite the positive publicity provided by her longtime clubmate, Gower does worry for the future of indoor bowls and of the crown green version, which is traditionally hugely popular across the Fylde.

She added: “My biggest fear is that we’ve gone a whole year without bowling, people have got older and won’t get back into the habit of playing. We’ve also, very sadly, lost bowlers to Covid.

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“I may go back to crown green myself but the issue is that clubs need paying members in order for the greens to be maintained.

“Even if people aren’t playing, they need to think about paying their membership because the clubs need the money. Otherwise crown green will suffer in the same way as the indoor game.”

As for her own future, Janice added: “It’s been an enforced year off, which I’ve never had before. It’s been refreshing in a way and I’m not sure what happens next.

“I don’t know whether I’ll do all the travelling to continue playing competitively or just play on the weekend circuit.

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“I’m trying to stay fit and am doing some running for charity. I’ve been doing a mile-a-day challenge and if anyone had told me two years ago I would enjoy running I’d never have believed them.

“But everyone has been affected by this pandemic in some way and I’ve been very fortunate so far.”

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