I am absolutely gutted to have received a very lengthy ban from bowls in the provincial towns league. I have been banned for the rest of this season (potentially 9 or 10 games) and the whole of the 2015 season. the general purposes committee have seen fit to impose the ban on all competition. the 2015 ban is suspended provided I do not post again on the subject concerned. I have been accused of calling into question the integrity of the committee and also have been accused of offensive remarks aimed at the secretary of the association. The ban is for the post I have just promoted so it is there for all to see. I spend my weekends up in the portrush area and am devastated to have my bowls taken away from me in such an unfair manner. I find the treatment dished out to me extremely unfair as I at no stage told any lies whatsoever and merely stated hard facts regarding the subject. I have received Incredible support and some from unexpected quarters and for this I am extremely grateful. This, however, hasnt softened the blow and I am missing playing with my team mates. I will not, however, retract one single word of my post and ,as I stand by every part of it. To accuse me of offensive comments is not only unfair, but is also a personal slur on me and when it comes to questioning the integrity of the general purposes committee, I dont have to say another word on that for fear of getting into more trouble. I will add to that by saying that every word of what I originally said is the truth and nobody has challenged me on that. im sure that if I had of concocted any part of my post then this would have been include as a reason for my ban. But it wasnt mentioned! This has left me questioning my further participation in the sport I love and have done for over 30 years. Having represented my country in many international series and achieved championships, both at national level and at british isles level I am deeply saddened to have had a huge part of my life taken away from me in such an unfair manner. Never before have I been reprimanded or my etiquette has never been questioned and I can only hope I have a lot of friends in the game who I value dearly. I feel I have been banned simply for exposing the truth of what is going on in the game and it seems to have hurt badly. I feel I have been banned for having the courage not to accept the unfair conditions imposed on my club when preparing for a cup final and I feel I have been banned for speaking the truth. I have no gripes personally with any member of the general purposes committee and the fact that I did not know who was on it backs that up, I also have no gripe personally with the secretary and if my comments were deemed offensive then I must ask those concerned to slowly read my original post and point out to me the offensive part! I do however have major concerns regarding the way the committee reached their decision, not only on the cup final, but also on my reward for exposing what is going on. This is the same committee who last year decided not to insist on a league game being completed and instead awarded maximum points (7) to one club who needed 7 points to tie for top spot in the league, thus enforcing a play off which they won fair and square, and in doing so denied my club the league title. Yes, re-read that last part, its the truth.(This decision was not in any way the fault of the club concerned) The same committee who thought that letting our cup final opponents have a full 23 ends on the neutral venue the night before our cup final was fair and equal. (This decision was not in any way the fault of the club concerned) I feel deeply saddened and aggrieved to have been treated in the way I have been and I cant quite believe the length or severity of the ban. I, personally, am not calling into question the integrity of the committee or anyone for that matter, I just find it hard not to question decisions that seem to the vast majority of people as incredibly unfair. Has the day arrived when we are not allowed to question decisions or state facts about anything that stands out as somewhat odd. I deal only in facts and I will apologise unreservedly for any mistruths I may have stated, but up until now I havnt had any mistruths pointed out to me. I could say a lot more and feel as angry as I feel sad but it would potentially land me in more trouble, Thank you to all who have been in touch and your support means an awful lot, i didnt expect it and wouldnt be arrogant enough to have done so. But thank you. Missing the game!
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 19:25:58 +0000
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