April 1st 2003 Possible Ban for Coloured Bowls!!!! A Leading American Scientist and keen Bowler has called for a worldwide ban of the new style coloured range of bowls which have emerged over the last few years. Prof Ali Alilo from the New York College of Learning has discovered that these new bowls cause Bowlers with eyesight defects severe problems when trying to distinguish the difference between the many varied bright colours of bowl there are available today. The Professor claims that he experienced this potential problem when he was involved with few of his friends during a game at his own Club in New York's Central Park and has now written to the American Lawn Bowling Association asking for them to communicate to all Governing Bodies worldwide to ask them about banning this type of bowl. In his letter, the Prof wrote that while playing recently at his home Club, it became apparent that due to him being colour blind since an early age, that he had major problems trying to tell the difference between the green and bright blue bowls that both of his bowling friends were using during a competition last April. "Ive been color blind for as long as I can remember and I never thought that it would spoil a game of Bowls" " It was just impossible for me to tell the difference between all these brightly colored bowls". The Professor has admitted in his letter that he liked the idea of this new concept to help make bowling more appealing, but he thinks that the various Associations around the World would be foolish to rubbish his claims as some kind of joke!. The Professor included in his mailing a brief summary which describes what 'colour blindness' is, and that is as follows............................................................................................................................................. The human eye sees by light stimulating the retina (a neuro-membrane lining the inside back of the eye). The retina is made up of what are called Rods and Cones. The rods, located in the peripheral retina, give us our night vision, but can not distinguish color. Cones, located in the center of the retina (called the macula), are not much good at night but do let us perceive color during daylight conditions. The cones, each contain a light sensitive pigment which is sensitive over a range of wavelengths (each visible color is a different wavelength from approximately 400 to 700 nm). Genes contain the coding instructions for these pigments, and if the coding instructions are wrong, then the wrong pigments will be produced, and the cones will be sensitive to different wavelengths of light (resulting in a color deficiency). The colors that we see are completely dependent on the sensitivity ranges of those pigments. Scientist distinguish professor manufacturar On the left we see here what the bowls look like to normal sighted bowlers as compared to what a Bowler suffering with 'colour blindness' will see on the right. I am sure after looking at these pictures that you will be the first to agree that there is a potential problem that has not been taken into consideration by the Bowls Companies when deciding to produce this type of Bowl. Now I know of you of already bought this type of Bowl and I am sure your first concern will be what will happen if they do ban them?. I was considering buying set myself, but after seeing the Professor's letter posted on an American website, the first thing I did to make sure I didnt go out and foolishly waste my money was to contact the leading producers of this bowl to ask for advice. They have given me an assurance that should this lead to a ban of this product, that they will either give full refunds or offer to have each set fully re-coated in the traditional black or brown. They have also given me contact addresses and a helpline number for anyone who is concerned about this. |
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News in March |
April 1st 2003 Possible Ban for Coloured Bowls!!!! A Leading American Scientist and keen Bowler has called for a worldwide ban of the new style coloured range of bowls which have emerged over the last few years. Prof Ali Alilo from the New York College of Learning has discovered that these new bowls cause Bowlers with eyesight defects severe problems when trying to distinguish the difference between the many varied bright colours of bowl there are available today. The Professor claims that he experienced this potential problem when he was involved with few of his friends during a game at his own Club in New York's Central Park and has now written to the American Lawn Bowling Association asking for them to communicate to all Governing Bodies worldwide to ask them about banning this type of bowl. In his letter, the Prof wrote that while playing recently at his home Club, it became apparent that due to him being colour blind since an early age, that he had major problems trying to tell the difference between the green and bright blue bowls that both of his bowling friends were using during a competition last April. "Ive been color blind for as long as I can remember and I never thought that it would spoil a game of Bowls" " It was just impossible for me to tell the difference between all these brightly colored bowls". The Professor has admitted in his letter that he liked the idea of this new concept to help make bowling more appealing, but he thinks that the various Associations around the World would be foolish to rubbish his claims as some kind of joke!. The Professor included in his mailing a brief summary which describes what 'colour blindness' is, and that is as follows............................................................................................................................................. The human eye sees by light stimulating the retina (a neuro-membrane lining the inside back of the eye). The retina is made up of what are called Rods and Cones. The rods, located in the peripheral retina, give us our night vision, but can not distinguish color. Cones, located in the center of the retina (called the macula), are not much good at night but do let us perceive color during daylight conditions. The cones, each contain a light sensitive pigment which is sensitive over a range of wavelengths (each visible color is a different wavelength from approximately 400 to 700 nm). Genes contain the coding instructions for these pigments, and if the coding instructions are wrong, then the wrong pigments will be produced, and the cones will be sensitive to different wavelengths of light (resulting in a color deficiency). The colors that we see are completely dependent on the sensitivity ranges of those pigments. Scientist distinguish professor manufacturar On the left we see here what the bowls look like to normal sighted bowlers as compared to what a Bowler suffering with 'colour blindness' will see on the right. I am sure after looking at these pictures that you will be the first to agree that there is a potential problem that has not been taken into consideration by the Bowls Companies when deciding to produce this type of Bowl. Now I know of you of already bought this type of Bowl and I am sure your first concern will be what will happen if they do ban them?. I was considering buying set myself, but after seeing the Professor's letter posted on an American website, the first thing I did to make sure I didnt go out and foolishly waste my money was to contact the leading producers of this bowl to ask for advice. They have given me an assurance that should this lead to a ban of this product, that they will either give full refunds or offer to have each set fully re-coated in the traditional black or brown. They have also given me contact addresses and a helpline number for anyone who is concerned about this. |
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