Tenpin Bowling Australia CEO wrap-up

What a year it has been for the Australian Tenpin Bowling community! With the launch of new partnerships, new events, and the hosting of an IBF World Cup and Para Bowling World Cup, this year brought new levels of excitement and offered more opportunities for bowlers to compete at a higher level amongst some of the greatest in the world.

TPL Events

This year marked the launch of our new annual elite competition, the Tenpin Premier League (TPL). The inaugural 2022 TPL season kicked off in Wodonga, Victoria and travelled to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland and then to Wyncity, Keon Park, Melbourne for the final round. The highly anticipated events showcased the best Australian bowling has to offer, with the likes of world number one Jason Belmonte, previous World Cup winner Bec Whiting and World Games gold medallist Sam Cooley amongst those delivering great performances on the lanes.  Queenslander and ‘King of the North’ Jarrod Langford took out the TPL in 2022 and I wish him well as he heads to the USA in the new year to bowl on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) circuit.   

The tournament was a huge success, and the live streams on Facebook and YouTube helped us reach a whole new audience. Having our athletes featured in such a way gives them the recognition they so well deserve.

Since then, ESPN has aired all three events on ESPN2. Having the competition aired on a platform with such a large following aligns directly with our vision for the TPL, which is to engage with new audiences for the sport and to highlight our Australian stars.

This will be a major step forward in growing awareness of the League as well as our incredible athletes. The opportunity to revisit the excitement of the TPL on ESPN is the perfect launching pad for 2023.

AGL National High-Performance Centre

Earlier this year, TBA established the sport’s first National High Performance and Community Centre (NHPCC) at Suncity Bowl in Alexandra Headland, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

This was a strategic initiative to help foster the development of the next generation of Tenpin Bowling talent and deliver vital capacity for the sport and its participants. The NHPCC will provide a dedicated home for all TBA’s High-Performance programs as well as assisting athletes and coaches in their preparations for national and international competitions. It will also continue to allow over 400 regular local bowlers to access the facility to participate in leagues and events and junior programs such as Bowl Patrol to be run and complement the strong school and inclusion activity currently delivered at the venue.

In early November we announced our ​​partnership with AGL, which also included the naming rights of our High-Performance Centre on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, which is now known as the AGL National High Performance Centre.

As part of the ground-breaking partnership, AGL will install a 99.8kW solar system on the roof of the centre to help harness the power of the sun to provide renewable energy to the facility. It’s an important first step to realise TBA’s renewable energy potential and we will continue working with AGL to enable further energy savings for other tenpin bowling centres across the country.

Along with AGL we welcomed other sponsors into the TBA family, such as Local Brewing Co. and, supporting the TPL, Soodox, and Sportscover.

We thank all our sponsors for their support during this season and are excited about the perspective of growth going forward.

IBF World Cup and Para Bowling World Cup

Hosting the 2022 International Bowling Federation (IBF) World Cup and the Para-Bowling World Cup at Suncity Bowl, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, between 3-23 November was a tremendous opportunity for TBA to welcome the world’s top athletes and to continue growing the sport in Australia. I’d like to thank the Queensland Government, Tourism and Event Queensland and the Sunshine Coast Council for their amazing support of our partnership and delivery of the event.

Witnessing the action on display during the 2022 Tenpin World Cup was exciting and inspiring. We saw perfect games bowled, numerous roll-offs, several upsets, brilliant sportsmanship, and elite Tenpin Bowling action delivered by the very best bowlers in the world

Throughout the three weeks of the events, the international athletes had the opportunity to enjoy their stay on the Sunshine Coast to the fullest, with the majority of them taking the chance to explore the amazing places and activities available in the region.

A big shout-out goes to Kallan Strong and Amanda Threlfall who both claimed gold medals at the Para Bowling World Cup and Jason Belmonte, who took home a silver medal in the individual men’s event at the Tenpin World Cup before helping the men’s team win bronze in the team event.,  Chloe Clague had the house pumping as she made a run towards the final, eventually falling in the quarter-finals to the eventual winner Bryanna Cote from the USA.

There were many more highlights across the year and we’ll revisit some of these over the holiday season on our socials. However, most importantly, I would like to personally thank the bowling community and all those who supported the sport and invested their time and effort to make it better.  Your contribution has meant that this year we have been able to showcase the best of Tenpin Bowling in Australia and see improvement across several areas highlighted within our strategic plan.

Looking ahead to the 2023 season, we are thrilled about what is to come, with more activity, competitions, events, and larger coverage for tenpin bowling in Australia.

Kindest regards,

Rohan O’Neill

Tenpin Bowling Australia CEO