Who are our National Council members and what do their roles involve? Our series continues to cover each of our heads of departments and their involvement in our sport from the time they first bowled to what’s in store for the future.
Meet BTBA Communications and PR Stuart Watson.
How did you first get involved in bowling?
One Wednesday evening back in the late 80’s whilst on my way home from work, I randomly went into Tolworth Bowl and spent the evening watching and talking to the bowlers. On the following Saturday I bought a ball from the Pro Shop downstairs and lined-up in the next Wednesday night league the following week!. The atmosphere of the bustling bowl and the camaraderie of the bowlers was wonderfully inviting, and I quickly caught the bug. At one time I bowed in every evening league at Tolworth – and there were many – before also joining as a general league sub at Guildford.
What made you get involved in the media side of the Sport?
Why does anyone get involved in anything? I guess that the draw of something that you love so much makes obscure opportunities simply happen, and I answered ‘the call’ from The BTBA Head Office for someone to help with their website way back in 2011 – or thereabouts – and it has continued ever since! It’s crazy to think I have been the Webmaster and written virtually all the website and social media content for almost 16 years…
There have been others involved in the previous BTBA website ‘way back’ before me, but they have all moved on or sadly, as with John Egan and Andy James passed away.
You took on a rebuild of the BTBA website a few years ago and social media, a big task at the time, why?
It was all a natural progression, maybe organic, you’d say today. Everything was ‘oh so simple’ in the early 2010’s before the modern smartphone really took-off and became more affordable. From then things started to get more complex, although now they are a major force in our lives, whether good or bad. Regardless, things have gotten too much to handle for a single person, who at the time had a full-time job and was bowling most evenings!
I have made several calls for people to make a media team, but let’s be honest there’s only so much time that a working person is able to dedicate as a volunteer. Doing media can be all-consuming as there is so much to cover.
Youth bowling also takes up much of your time as does curating the BTBA online archives. What can people do to help recover BTBA history?
There is so, so much that can be said of our incredible young bowlers, or athletes as we call them within our Committee. They will be the history of the future and at YB we are working to secure this data digitally in the absence of the printed magazines of the past. Additionally the older youth, adults and seniors of today are still providing ‘modern history’, or perhaps ‘history to be’ every time they lace-up and compete, and this is also something that I am trying to capture. This especially is where we look to bowlers and tournament managers to send even just the scores and a top-3 of winners from every event they run.
If you have anything bowling related that I can have to create past records of the sport please, please let me know – email archive@btba.org.uk and let’s start a conversation. I have received several boxes so far and photos of achievements, winning teams and even individuals would be very welcome. Pages are slowly appearing linked to other relevant materials every week!
Scans of pages, photos or news clippings, even complete magazines, newspapers, cloth and/or metal badges, photos of trophies, trophy cabinets, maybe even you have previous youth trophies from the Nationals or Junior Scratch Tour you can photograph. Everything will help to build a picture of our rich heritage.
There must an absolute pile of material out amongst us all, and I’d love to have sight of it. Please just get in touch and let’s talk!
The BTBA Facebook page is reacting quicker and is sharing more news than in the past and the website continues to evolve, are we doing enough with the BTBA Website and Social Media or could we do more?
We can always do more! BUT it needs people. Recently, work began on a totally new website and work has being done to improve the current one in the meantime. It should be interesting watching to see what the result will be.
How can people join our growing BTBA media team or contribute content for our media platforms?
Please just start a conversation with me on stuartwatson@btba.org.uk or WhatsApp on 07590506828 and we can work it all out – I can’t wait to hear from you!