“It really is an exciting development,” that’s the words of World Bowls hall of fame committee chairman Kerry Clark when he talks to our media officer Ceris Hewlings about the role of the committee and its aims and objectives.

CH: Tell me how the hall of fame committee has come into being?

KC: It’s something that I think has been needed for quite a length of time when you consider we’ve got an organisation that’s been in existence as long as this one has and hasn’t really recognised outstanding athletes, outstanding administrators and outstanding contributors to the game. Now the time has arrived for this to happen. In my previous life, I was a strong advocate for Bowls New Zealand to get a Hall of Fame, and they did do that in 2013, Australia, around about the same time, but they’re the only two countries that have done it. It’s always been my view that if the opportunity did arrive for World Bowls to do it, they should do it. And so, I’ve been a bit noisy about that over a period of time and so it’s lovely to see it’s happening, and it’s also lovely to have a chance to be part of that exercise as well.

CH:And you’ve got some great colleagues helping you take the take it forward?

KC: I certainly do. Karen Murphy from Australia, who is well-known as a top player, Margaret Letham from Scotland, Betty Morgan MBE from Wales, who is somebody who has won more titles, I think, in Wales, than anybody could even think of, Gary Smith, whose background is not only as an international player for England, but also as the previous chief executive World Bowls, and David Rhys Jones, who comes in from a journalistic background. He’s been covering bowls longer than anybody else in the world. Current World Bowls president Brett O’Riley and immediate past president Darryl Clout are ex officio members too so absolutely, you’ve got a lot of experience sitting around that table who’ve seen a lot of bowls played and know a lot of people, so hopefully, collectively, we can do a good job.

CH: Excellent. You’ve had a couple of meetings already. So, what’s the focus?

KC: The focus has been really establishing a module going forward and really talking about how we should be identifying people who should be part of this, establishing a database of players, starting from the year dot, quite frankly, on the athletes’ side, who have represented their country at an international level. I’ve undertaken that task and I’ve been able to, from what’s available, establish a database of players who have played at Commonwealth Games, World Bowls, and then in more recent times, world champion events etc and then those who have taken part in Asia Pacific and Atlantic Championships – lots of names, I might tell you through that period, and names, lots of blasts from the past! 1930 was the first Commonwealth Games so we’ve gone right through since that time with World Bowls for men, starting in 1966, and women in 1969 and then women getting into the Commonwealth Games in every discipline in 1986. They got in in 1982 and triples, but 1986 was the first time that both genders played in the Commonwealth Games.

CH: Have you got a timescale that this is going to take?

KC: This isn’t going to happen overnight. We’re working through a process where I understand the board of World Bowls would like to make some announcements around first inductees into a Hall of Fame around November of this year so we’ll be working towards that, and we’re still working through discussions with the board as to the numbers that should take. Part of that this exercise is going to take a considerable length of time, I might tell you. We will start off with an agreed number of those most worthy people that should be looked at and then we take it from there.

And in addition to our athletes of course, it’s important that we recognise and look for those people who have made a massive contribution in the growth of the sport and the development of the sport. So, there are a number of people in that category, in the different aspects we want to cover and then we will be looking, as we move along, at people have made a big contribution the in the umpire, technical, official side of things and coaching. There’s a lot of strings to this bow, but we’ve been going now as a group, had a couple of meetings starting in March, and even and communications outside of those meetings as well, by email and whatever media we want to use. And so progress is being made, no doubt about that. It’s all about preserving the history of the sport going forward for future generations, and also with the World Bowls Series ranking list now as well, it’s really making it professional. Running right alongside this are some great stories that can be told in the research of some of these people who have been involved, not only as their achievement at events, but there’s a story around the individual as well. There’s an aspect of this where storytelling is really, really important.

These initial stages are totally confidential, because we are the recommending body. The final decision about who should be in the Hall of Fame will be agreed by the board, and quite frankly, if we’ve done our job correctly, it should be a rubber stamp exercise.

I might add it’s obviously going to be post posthumously as well.