IT'S time to get fair dinkum.

The current men's Gold Coast Tweed District pennant season has been frustrating to say the least, with division one made up of nine sides. Therefore, it has a bye each week and is completely out of sequence with all other divisions from two down to 10.

The season started on July 9 with a double header - only for division one - and the home and away fixtures conclude this weekend with the final four sides already locked in for the final series, unless the unbelievable happens.

Realistically, only six sides have been in the race for the finals all season and the bottom two sides have won only one match between them.

Southport in bottom position has failed to win a match in seven rounds and faces Helensvale on Saturday to end a dismal season.

Tugun, second from the bottom, has finished for the year with only one win, albeit against bottom side Southport.

The last four to contest the finals on the first Saturday in September won't change after round nine today, leaving only South Tweed, Tweed Heads and Burleigh Heads outside the four.

There is a definite need for an end-of-season critique on the Gold Coast Tweed pennant fixture for 2017.

Items on the agenda should include a clear definition of promotion/ demotion of clubs in all divisions and be enforced each year, with the lowest-placed club subjected to relegation.

Rink points should also be reintroduced at the first countback only, when match points are equal, to determine placing on ladder and then margins.

The results and ladders are emailed to the clubs each week but surely the rink results should also be included. Bowlers would like to know what skips played each other and who won and lost - not hard to do in this day and age, especially with social media comments.

Competitive bowlers run Premier League Queensland and provide a far better service to its members each week, with a weekly newsletter, skippers results, a league, a ladder and prizemoney for the best-performed leader on the skips' table. The district could certainly learn from them.

The numbers playing pennant have fallen through the years and this season one club in the Tweed area - for the first time ever - did not enter even one side in any division of pennant in the Gold Coast Tweed District.

A premier division of perhaps the six top clubs from division one playing five home and away matches (10 rounds) with the odd Friday night match under lights to reduce the schedule to eight weeks is perhaps the way to go!

The district could still have division one to 10 - eight clubs in each with promotion and demotion, subject to clause 3C, with no club to have more than one side in each division.

Let's get fair dinkum and try something different.

On a sad note, the bowls world was upset this week to hear of the passing of legend Norm Carmichael, a Tweed resident and bowls coach extraordinaire to elite, competitive and social bowlers.

Norm was renowned for his unique coaching ability and became known as the "swing doctor” after the Australian squad presented him with a stethoscope. Rest in peace, Norm.

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