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From Horseracing to Bowling An Interview with Rishi Persad |
"I had a bit of a shock when I got on the
green for the first time,” he admitted. “I thought it looked really
easy, then I had a go and I was awful. I quite like playing sport; I
play football, golf and cricket and I thought this is literally just
rolling it down and finding its way to the jack but I was so bad it
was embarrassing."
Comparing the level of frustration in bowls to golf, Rishi added: "There's some days where you pick up a golf club, you stand over the shot and you are not thinking about it, you just feel it and you don't have any doubts about the outcome. You do the same with bowls. "There's a couple of times where I have rolled a few down and it has felt pretty good, a lot easier than the times when I have really struggled. "It goes wrong in the same way for me as it does with golf, when I am really thinking about the outcome and the process rather than just doing it. It is about not letting the subconscious take over." After joining the BBC in 2003, Rishi worked on horseracing. He said: "It was the time where, I think if we are being entirely honest and open, the BBC was looking to diversify their talent to try to bring different-looking people in to the team. "Thankfully I did a good enough job with the horseracing and they must have thought well he knows something about sport and is proficient at broadcasting, maybe we can try him in other areas. "I was given the opportunity to do some different things; I did the marathon, Wimbledon, a few different gigs at the Open and was then asked if I wanted to have a go on bowls. I had not really paid much attention to the bowls other than watching it when it had been on the television. I love any sport and watch it all, whether that's bowls, snooker, darts, golf, tennis, football, I would watch it. "The first event I worked on was the International Open on Sheffield in October 2003. When I took over the bowls it was the usual thing and I still get it now from friends who will say, 'What's coming up next?' and I say I am doing the bowls. They say: 'Oh, that's going to be fun for you, that's going to be exciting.' "The thing is though I really love the week at the World Indoor Championships, it is genuinely one of my favourite weeks of the year and I do lots of different events. I love the people involved, I love the team and I really enjoy working within the sport. I know all the players well now after all this time and I appreciate the sport of bowls for how good it really is. "When people say to me: 'But that's all about the old folks,' I often say yes and so what, can't we have something that old folks play and want, do we always have to prepare stuff and produce stuff for young people? "Old people, young people, middle-aged people, children- we have to cater for everybody at some point. If there's a certain demographic that appreciates this sport, why can't they enjoy it? I have no qualms about telling people how much I love and enjoy the week at Potters." This year the World Indoor Championships had the added entertainment factor of two qualifiers, England's Jamie Walker and Scotland's Jason Banks, making the final for the first time in the history of the event. "That was absolutely terrific," Rishi said. "They are both young and I think every year that I have been coming to this event, the top ones were always Alex Marshall, Paul Foster, David Gourlay, Greg Harlow and Andy Thomson- they were the names coming up every year. "It's nice to have fresh faces for the TV and you can tell looking at them that they have the temperament for any occasion and they can transfer their skills. "To be honest, aside from small additions like trying to give the game a bit more 'razzamatazz,' which I don't think can ever be a bad thing, I haven't seen in the 20 years that I have been coming to Potters that many changes and I think that's probably one of the advantages of the sport." Rishi says that he finds the psychology of bowls intriguing. "I enjoy getting to speak to and understand top level sports men and women and how they achieve their best," he said. "I like having the opportunity to sit down and speak to the stars, you don't get to sit down and ask Rory McIlroy about his approach to the game but with the bowlers I get to spend quite a lot of time with them. They have the time to sit and chat about what they do, how they do it, they are pretty chilled out about spending time with everyone and answering questions. "One interesting topic is how distracted players can get. In golf, when a player is putting and everybody goes quiet, there is still the ambient noise and you do still hear stuff. I guess it is even more quiet in an auditorium and you cannot expect hundreds of people sitting watching- where the noise is amplified because of echoey acoustics- to be completely quiet all the time. "If you get distracted by something that small or tiny, I would like to think you could hold your concentration through it, even if you have to pause and reset yourself, you should never blame an outcome on what has happened." Rishi strongly believes that there is a lot to be celebrated in bowls. He said: "Things that are really important are not to alienate the fans you have already and appreciating how good the sport already is. "Having worked in horseracing for a long time, we often ask ourselves how we go about getting fresh faces through the door. In a similar sense to bowls, it has a slightly more senior demographic making up the core audience but at the end of the day it is the responsibility of those people who are already fans within the sport to spread the word." The answer here, according to Rishi, is breathing life in to bowls for children. "In bowls and horseracing you get involved as a youngster through a member of the family," he added. "I do think it is the responsibility of people who like the sport whether that's fans or players or people who work in it, to take children to attend events, take them to have a go at the sport and then engage with them verbally afterwards so they learn about the sport. "I want to make horseracing accessible for children but also that the adults taking them come in for half price. I want activities to not just be about kids having fun, but kids having fun at racing. "Why can't we get on a Friday at Potters kids from local schools down? If kids come to the bowls, I want kids to have a go at playing bowls, I want them to understand how hard it is and let them try it out. I would love them to be able to meet all the players and chat to them. "I took my daughter racing at Christmas time and on the way home in the car I said if you were to go back, what would you want to have at the races to have a good day? She said I want to touch the horses, I want to have a chat with the jockeys especially Rachel Blackmore and have a bet. "I think if we can bring children to the sport at a really young age and let them have a go at the things they want to do, they will want to come back. But the key is: don't just bring them then take them home again, we need to talk to them about it. "That's how I got involved with sport, me and my Dad talked about sport, it was a big part of my life as a child and all I wanted to do and think about, "I didn't care what sport it was. My relationship with my Dad was about sport and that's what I feel is the key for sports like bowls to have generations coming through, not just for players and competitors but from a fan point of view." Sian Honnor Previous Article Katherine Rednall Previous Article Harry Goodwin Previous Article David Bolt Previous Article Yaz Hasan Previous Article Nick Brett |
February 2023
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