Indoor Bowler magazine

Those who subscribe to this quarterly magazine will now know that the current issue (Spring 2020) is the last PRINTED copy to be produced. From now on issues will be freely available on-line at www.indoorbowler.com. The site also displays back copies (to 2012) with a “page flipper” which allows one to read through the full magazine.  Our best wishes for the future go to Bob Weafer after 27 years of persistence and hard work in giving our sport a public face. The following brief history appears on the site.

The magazine has gone through a number of development stages from a Monthly to a Bi-monthly and then quarterly. It was first published in 1992 under the title of Short Mat World. It was A5 in size and produced in Monochrome. It only covered the sport of Short Mat Bowls. In the September/October 1999 issue, the size was increased to A4 and the Cover related pages were produced in spot colour but the inside of the magazine was still monochrome.

From the Spring of 2004 some colour was introduced but the magazine still had monochrome pages as well. Finally, in the Spring of 2004 the magazine was produced in full colour throughout. The penultimate development in the printed word came in the Winter Edition of 2017/2018 when the magazine started to cover Carpet Bowls and changed its name to Indoor Bowler. The last edition that will be printed is Spring 2020, after which we will move to an internet only magazine, as printing, bagging, labelling and posting etc. is getting logistically more difficult as I hit 74.

Personally, I still prefer a hard copy of anything I read but times move on and eventually the printed word may disappear for many publications. I have been the editor, owner and sole producer of the magazine for the whole of its 27 and a half years to date and it has been the most frustrating yet enjoyable task in a shrinking sport that does not seem interested in any publicity.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has halted Bowls and many other sports in 2020, so, there is nothing to report on and it may be many months before new editions hit the internet. I hope that in the future, someone else will pick up this torch and run with it for the sake of our sport

Bob Weafer – May 2020