It's long been a question I have asked but never received a satisfactory answer. Like Tennis, why don't bowls competition secretaries seed players. It does not make any sense for 2 top players or teams to meet in the first round, thus robbing the competition of interest.
As a suggestion, recommend that clubs seed the players in their various competitions as an experiment. Each District should monitor the process and, if successful, carry the concept to the next level
It's always been a bit of a thorn in the side of bowls officials, this matter of seeding, and most of them avoid it for fear of upsetting players who think they might have a chance of taking out one of the big boys (or girls) in the first round. This works well in the club, or even, district comeptitions but when we get to the nationals and others like it I believe that seeding is imperative to keep and/or gain the interest of spectators.
It is common knowledge, of course, that informal seeding has taken place in national tournaments so the better players can meet in the later rounds and mostly it has worked but does not take into acocunt the fact the so-called 'better' player can have an off day.
And that's how the 'minnows' come to the fore and themselves become the better players.
Now here is a subject that should be followed up - we should invite the various views of the whole spectrum of the bowling fraternity to comment on this
We are using the seeding system at our club for quite a few years and it works very well.