Dubbo will again host the Inland Petroleum International Fours Bowls competition in 2023

The second instalment of the tournament was officially launched on Wednesday morning with representatives from the host club as well as major sponsor Inland Petroleum.

The richest fours tournament in the world, Club Dubbo hosted 42 teams from across Australia and the world in November last year.

However, now the club's Tony Spiers is hoping this year can be bigger and better.

"It's our second running of the City of Dubbo International Fours, we had a really successful last year," he said.

"It was really well supported, the spectators enjoyed it and the city was booked out for four nights.

"Our sponsors got a lot of exposure as well so this year we've moved it forward in the year a little bit to September."

The competition clashed with a few other events around Australia but the new date brings home of attracting more international competitors like the Irish team who featured in 2022.

"It's the week after the World Championships so we are really hoping to attract a few of the international sides who are coming to Broadbeach," he said.

"There are 40 or 50 teams coming to the World Champs and if we can snag a quarter of them then it would be fantastic.

"These guys are world-class, the guy who won it is the current World Singles Champion.

"We had Commonwealth Games gold medallist, we had half of the Irish gold medal-winning team here which was just great.

"In fact, they are still in Australia so I'm hoping they come back this year."

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In 2022, the competition boasted a prizemoney total of $100,000 making it the richest in the world for its kind.

But since Spiers admitted a few other competitions have begun to challenge them for the title.

"As we advertised last year, it's the richest tournament in the world for bowls," he said.

"Las year's prizemoney was $100,000 but this year we've bumped it up a bit to $125,000.

"The first prize now is $40,000 for the winning team which is massive."

As for entries, they will open next week with the club calling for nominations but a selection process will be undertaken to decide which 42 teams will provide the best bowling.

"Our total field is 42 teams which add up to 168 bowlers," Spiers said.

"That's our maximum because we haven't got any more space on our greens."

While it will be great for the club to bring more than 150 competitors to their greens, Spiers also believes the city as a whole will benefit too.

"We'd hope to attract up to 1000 people into town for the event," he said.

"I think that is significant, there will probably be 400 or 500 beds being used over the four days.

"The other thing is that it is over four days, some of the teams last year, we had a team from WA stay for 10 days.

"They went and saw all the sights."

The competition will run September 13-15.

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