Bowls SA will consider a bid to host Australian Premier League lawn bowls tournament

BOWLS SA will consider a bid to host the Australian Premier League on temporary greens at locations such as ­Victoria Square or the Adelaide Casino.

4/12/2013 pic today at the Adelaide Bowling club , Kent town is , Bowls SA general manager Mark Easton Adelaide Endurance recently finished second in the Australian Premier League lawn bowls tournament in Brisbane, and mark is pretty happy with that result.....PIXS DAVID CRONIN

BOWLS SA will consider a bid to host the Australian Premier League on temporary greens in locations such as Victoria Square or the Adelaide Casino.

The second edition of the $110,000 tournament, dubbed bowls’ answer to Twenty20 cricket, was held at Club Pine Rivers in Brisbane last month.

Bowls SA general manager Mark Easton said the success of the four-day event, which was televised live on Fox Sports and attracted some of the world’s best players, made it an attractive proposition.

He said a bid to stage it in the CBD was on option once Pine Rivers’ three-year hosting deal expired next year.

“We’d certainly like to be part of that discussion,” Easton said.

“We’ve got nothing in comparison to that (Pine Rivers) now ... but I can’t see why you couldn’t play some of the games here.

“A bit like the drop in (cricket) pitches, you could have a drop in green and role it out at somewhere like the (Adelaide) casino.

“You want to go where the crowds are so could we take it to Victoria Square and have a purpose-built bowls facility.”

Easton said the APL was fulfilling its objective of taking the game to new audiences and attracting star international players like Scotland’s Alex Marshall and Canadian Ryan Bester.

He said his long-term vision was for a home-and-away competition spread over a season.

“The (overseas) players indicated themselves that the crowd was unbelievable and something they’ve never experienced in the world of bowls,” he said.

“The game just needs to evolve from this and hopefully in time you would have an Adelaide side flying in and out of Sydney and Brisbane and trying to grow the game into more of an A-League style competition.”

Adelaide Endurance made the APL final for the second straight year.