Everything you need to know about #BPL08
What is the Bowls Premier League (BPL)?
The BPL, formerly the Australian Premier League (APL), is a competition created and run by Bowls Australia (BA) that is now in its sixth year and eighth instalment.
The event is a modified version of traditional bowls, with lightning fast matches and entertaining fanfare delivered by the eight franchises from around Australia and New Zealand making for a ’20/20′ type format of the sport.
When is it?
BPL08 will be held from Tuesday, November 13 to Friday, November 16.
Matches during the day will get underway from 10:00 am AEST, while the night sessions begin from 5:00 pm AEST.
Where is it?
This instalment will be held at Club Pine Rivers, about 40-minutes north of the Brisbane CBD, Queensland. It’s FREE to attend!
Can I watch it on TV?
Yes – the night sessions of BPL08 (including Friday’s finals) will be broadcast LIVE on Fox Sports and Sky Sports NZ from 5:00 pm AEST (6:00 pm AEDT) every night.
If I don’t have Pay TV, can I still watch it?
Yes – the day sessions of BPL08 will be broadcast LIVE on BA’s Facebook page via ‘Rinkside Live’.
One match per session will be covered with viewers able to access the coverage from anywhere in the world, for free.
Be sure to LIKE the Bowls Australia Facebook page to ensure you are notified every time we are LIVE!
What is the event format and are there special rules?
Each of the eight BPL franchises will play each other twice over 14 rounds during the competition.
At the end of the 14 qualifying rounds, the top four teams will play off in Friday night’s finals series.
The top four teams are decided by points. If teams are equal on points they will be split on net total shots (shots for minus shots against).
Finals schedule:
ELIMINATION FINAL
5:00pm 3 vs 4
SEMI-FINAL
6:15pm 1 vs 2
PRELIMINARY FINAL
7:30pm: Loser of semi-final vs winner of elimination final
FINAL
8:45pm: Winner of semi-final vs winner of preliminary final
Each match consists of two five-end sets, with a one-end tie-break played if required. The game format pairs, with three bowls for each player per end,
BPL matches take just over one hour from start to finish and deciding the winner is simple. 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, BPL players place the mat and advise the marker the length of the jack they would like to play to.
To keep games progressing, players will have 30 seconds to 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, ensuring the next suspenseful result is only moments away.
BPL teams will also be able to nominate one Power Play end per set, enabling teams to earn double the shots scored in that end.
Some days players just aren’t on top of their game, maybe its only for a few ends, maybe its for a whole match, in order to get the best players the sport has to offer out on the green, a team coach can replace a player with a substitute during the game, but only immediately preceding the delivery of a bowl by their team player.
If a tie-break is required to decide the winner, all players on both teams will join the fray, with the format changing to two-bowl-triples for that end.
Who are the franchises involved?
As mentioned, there are eight franchises involved from across Australia and New Zealand.
Brisbane Pirates – Alex Marshall, Kelsey Cottrell, Michael Breen, Dave Edwards (Coach)
Club Helensvale Gold Coast Hawks – Aron Sherriff, Nathan Rice, Georgia White*, Mark Casey (Coach)
Silkari Illawarra Gorillas – Aaron Teys, Jeremy Henry, Kay Moran, Wes Falconer (Coach)
Blundstone Melbourne Roys – Aaron Wilson, Carla Krizanic, Barrie Lester, Ian Ewing (Coach)
Moama Murray Steamers – Ryan Bester, Michael Walker, Tiffany Brodie, Wayne Turley* (Coach)
New Zealand Blackjacks – Jo Edwards, Ali Forsyth, Seamus Curtin*, Richard Girvan* (Coach)
Blooms The Chemist Perth Suns – John Slavich, Kristina Krstic, Shane Knott*, Pieter Harris* (Coach)
BCiB Sydney Lions – Karen Murphy, Ray Pearse*, Scott Thulborn, Steve Glasson (Coach)
Is there prize-money?
The BPL competition carries a huge $100,000 prize-pool, with the winning franchise handed a $25,000 cheque.
Who won the event last time?
The Club Helensvale Gold Coast Hawks were victorious last time out at BPL07 in Wellington, New Zealand, defeating the Brisbane Pirates in the final.
Aron Sherriff was the tournament MVP.
What is the BPL Cup?
In 2014, BA launched a new national participation initiative, Jack Attack, which is played at over 190 venues.
The BPL Cup marries the Jack Attack and BPL products together to strengthen the correlation between the bowls that viewers see on television and the format of bowls offered at clubs.
The BPL Cup provides an opportunity for club-based teams to progress through various qualification rounds to the National Finals, to be played in parallel with the BPL08 competition from Monday, November 12.
Each of the 16 national finalists teams will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Club Pine Rivers, while we are pleased to announce that the National Finals (from quarterfinals onwards, all seven one-hour matches) will be televised on FoxSports.
