Allan Thornhill, World Bowls Laws Advisory Group chairman, recently had the pleasure of attending Ralson Bowls Club in Paisley, near Glasgow, UK, with fellow World Bowls assessor Roger Black.

Here Allan tells us about the day: “On a cool damp Sunday morning, we set up a series of exercises on the rinks and conducted eight ITO accreditations.

“As a reminder, ITOs are World Bowls International Technical Officials and officiate at events managed by World Bowls. The accreditation process tests the candidates’ skills in measuring, marking and laws knowledge.

“At Ralston, we had three existing ITOs who were put through their paces as part of a five-year re-accreditation cycle. We also had five new candidates who carried out slightly different elements of the assessment.

“There is no margin for error for new candidates that complete four parts to the whole assessment. In part one, they have 15 theory questions to answer in 45 minutes without the aid of a law book. Part two sees them marking a short five end game of singles to identify various skills in marking followed by visually determining shot bowls and distances. In part three, they conduct five single handed measures and finally in part four, they carry out four long measures with assistance. Pass mark for the measuring elements is 90, for the theory 80%, but the crucial one, 100% for identifying the correct shot in each measure.

“Those seeking re-accreditation have similar elements but with a reduced number of theory questions and five more complex measuring exercises. The pass marks remain the same though.

“I would like to congratulate the following for successful passing the accreditation to become ITOs: Robert McPherson, Dan McManus and David Rice all from Scotland.

“Also, congratulations to Graham Senff from Scotland and Neill Brice from Ireland for successfully passing their re-accreditation.”

At the beginning of this month, on the opposite side of the world, Allan’s colleague Michael Johnson oversaw an accreditation process at Christchurch in New Zealand.

Continued Allan: “Even though it is their winter, they appeared to have a warm day with some icy conditions in the morning, rather like Paisley! My congratulations go to Andrew Hampton on successfully passing the accreditation.

“World Bowls now have accredited ITOs in 14 countries and with the increasing number of events coming on stream the officials are as busy as ever. If you have significant experience as an umpire and wish to be considered for ITO accreditation, please visit the World Bowls website and check the criteria and application.”