Nambour Bowls Club welcomed 74 players and guests on Sunday for the Bowlers Paradise Hinterland Local League’s 2026 Presentation Day, a milestone afternoon for both the league and a host club still finding its feet after a damaging flood twelve months ago.
The event, held under clear skies and light cloud following a rain-affected Anzac weekend, brought together representatives from all 11 clubs put forward 16 teams to mark the close of the BPHLL’s inaugural Open season and formally recognise Glasshouse Blue as the 2026 champions.
For Nambour Bowls Club, hosting the event carried particular significance. Speaking at the presentation, club representative Nev Perrin described a difficult year. “We’ve had a pretty horrid time here over the last year,” he said. “This time last year we had water through the place.” Perrin confirmed that a $100,000 grant, secured by Dray Morton, would fund repairs to the club’s lighting and other infrastructure, news that drew a warm response from those gathered. The club, Perrin indicated, had been doing it tough, and the grant was a timely lifeline.
Glasshouse Blue were presented as the 2026 BPHLL Open Champions, their names the first to be inscribed on the new Open Championship Shield, a trophy donated by Baz Neil, the BPHLL’s founder, to mark the competition’s transition to a unified Open format. The shield, and what it represents, added a ceremonial weight to proceedings that went beyond the usual end-of-season formalities.
The club’s path to the title had been hard-won. Across a finals series contested largely in the rain, Glasshouse Blue defeated Nambour Jade in preliminary final before overcoming Palmwoods Hawks in the Grand Final. See our report on the finals series.
The 2026 season was the BPHLL’s most significant to date. Following a vote of member clubs, the competition retired its separate Ladies and Men’s divisions and introduced integrated Open club teams, 11 players per side competing across four rinks in a mixture of Pairs, Triples, and Fours. The format change reduced the overall team count from 28 to 21, but club feedback across the season has been strongly positive.
The afternoon began with a social game on the greens, followed by the formal presentations. Every attendee, players and spectators alike, was entered into a draw for a set of bowls donated by Paul Carson of the Sunshine Coast Bowls Shop, with no purchase required. Kenilworth took out the Presentation Day competition, while Glasshouse claimed the social game on the day. Each of the 11 participating clubs also received a $75 voucher from principal sponsor Bowlers Paradise, a tangible acknowledgement of the clubs’ commitment to the competition across the season.
Competition organiser Andrew Friday welcomed the gathering warmly, and the afternoon reflected the relaxed but purposeful spirit he has cultivated across since running the competition. Speaking to Range Community News, Friday was reflective about what the BPHLL has become. “What makes this competition special isn’t the bowling, it’s the clubs,” he said. “This competition was built on the idea that hinterland clubs deserve a competition of their own, and fourteen years on, I think we’ve well and truly delivered on that. The fact that other clubs across the region are now taking notice tells me we’re doing something right.”
With interest from beyond the hinterland growing, and a membership base that has shown it can embrace significant change, as this year’s successful move to Open teams demonstrated, the BPHLL heads into 2027 in as strong a position as it has ever been. For the clubs, the volunteers, and the bowlers who make it what it is, the next chapter is already looking like a good one.
Bowlers Paradise Hinterland Local League
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