It is not quite the archetypal background of the figurehead for musty old bowls, but the 42-year-old who jokingly describes his work-day look of pin-striped suits and tie-less shirts as “conference casual” believes it is the sport’s image rather than his own, that does not fit.
Alan McMillan, who helped establish the clubgolf junior programme while working with sportscotland, left the national sports council last year to take over as chief executive of the Scottish Bowling Association. He was very much aware of its problems in terms of how bowls was perceived, but he had done his homework.
“I was probably one of those lay people out there who had that perspective, having had a wee shot at it and thought it was fun, because I just liked playing sports anyway.
“When I looked into it . . . it’s a sleeping giant,” he explains. That is not least down to the nature of a sport that is inexpensive to play and extremely accessible to the vast majority of Scots.
“My whole enthusiasm is [because] I can see where we can take this as a business, not necessarily just as a sport,” he says. “We need to start getting clubs to look at themselves as a business. We’ve got 900 outlets throughout Scotland and the majority of them are right in the heart of residential areas, so how can we get these outlets to get more local residents to come and shop in our shop? That’s the way we need to go.”
Opportunities such as the one that presents itself this week are crucial then. Shortly before McMillan was appointed last year, the first joint national championship finals were staged at Northfield in Ayr, as the Scottish Bowling Association and Scottish Women’s Bowling Association joined forces. As the second is staged this week, with the likes of three-time indoor world singles champion Paul Foster and Willie Wood, the record holder for World Outdoor Championship medals, taking part, he will be able to watch proceedings from his office at what is the national centre for bowling.
At least 7000 spectators are expected, with this year’s event enhanced by the involvement of a third governing body, the Scottish Young Bowlers Association, whose finals for youth (under-18) players kick start the event today.
It all contributes to the impression of a collective sense of purpose as McMillan seeks to complete the tricky challenge that was a big part of his remit when appointed: completing what has been a 10-year unification process of the men’s and women’s games. It should happen later this year and is a major factor behind his confidence over changing the way this sport – at which Scotland has achieved unparalleled success – is viewed.
“I think unification is going to go a long way towards that because we’ll have a stronger voice of 80,000 or so members and 900 clubs,” he reckons. “If you put that down as a basic statistic on the table it actually outweighs a lot of other sports in Scotland.
“Professionally it was the right place to be and I see the potential in this sport. I’ve seen closely the way other sports have developed themselves and I look at bowls and ask why aren’t we there? We’ve got a good base to work from with the participation figures and the performances at the world championships, now it’s about taking it to the next level.”
His principal aim is to help clubs learn how to get more heavily involved in their communities because, for all that renewed efforts are being made to support those at the high performance end of the sport, McMillan knows long-term success depends upon mass participation. “If we get it right at grassroots level, we are getting it right for the clubs, but we are also getting it right for anyone who has the potential to be a world-class bowler,” he says.
He would not be human, though, if he did not register disappointment at the focus in Scotland on other sports, where much of the time is spent bemoaning failure, while there is a genuine success story to be celebrated in his sport.
“In some ways, the frustration of CEOs of sports that are not the footballs, rugbys, golfs, is always that publicity aspect, and I’d love to have what the Camanachd Cup final has – shinty being live on television – when we have our national championships.
“The fact we have a big participation base, a big club base where we have world champions and top-level players in our country, means we all have a responsibility to do more on the publicity side of it because we have good news stories and we have a lot to say.
“There’s no-one out there pushing for bowls and you ask yourself what makes it exciting? Well, like anything, if you delve into it, there’s plenty going on.”
* The Scottish Youth Bowling Association finals are at Northfield today. The Scottish men’s and women’s singles, pairs, triples, fours and senior fours championships start tomorrow.
