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British Media join funding battle for Spanish Bowls
A storm erupted around Spain Bowling last week with the publication of an article in the Times Newspaper about the lack of funding for the National Bowls Team. When the newspaper contacted the Federacion de Bolos in Madrid to enquire about financial support for their representative team, which is made up entirely of British expatriates who are resident in Spain, a spokesman for the Spanish sports ministry said: “Lawn bowls does not receive any public money because there are not many players in Spain and those that do play are not Spanish citizens.”
But what he failed to say is that each of those players, and over 3000 more who are playing at bowls clubs across the country, contribute to the Federacion every year with an annual subscription. The article, written by Madrid correspondent Graham Keeley, appeared in the Times on Tuesday. It was quickly picked up by the BBC, the result of which was the appearance of Bob Donnelly, the National Director and Lawn Bowls delegado to the Federacion de Bolos, on Radio 5 ‘Live Daily’ with Adrian Chiles. On Wednesday afternoon Bob also appeared live on the ‘Hawksbee and Jacobs’ sports programme on talkSPORT Continued on Page 2