PREMIER league bowls is coming to Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton next month. Matchroom Sport announced the second annual PartyPoker.com Premier League Bowls will take place at the five-star resort from April 24 and 26.

PREMIER league bowls is coming to Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton next month.

Matchroom Sport announced the second annual PartyPoker.com Premier League Bowls will take place at the five-star resort from April 24 and 26.

Featuring a line-up of six champions, the 2009 event carries a �42,000 prize fund with �15,000 going to the eventual winner.

Scotland's Paul Foster will be back to defend the crown he won so impressively last year and will be joined by 2008 runner-up and world number one Alex Marshall and Scottish Open Champion and last year's semi-finalist Greg Harlow.

They will be up against three newcomers to the event led by the new World Champion, England's Billy Jackson. He will be joined by Welsh Open Champion Robert Chisholm (England) and Scotland's Darren Burnett, the International Open Champion.

This year sees a departure from the normal play-offs of two semi-finals and then a final, with the introduction of a step-ladder final. This will involve the fourth and third finishing players in the league playing each other with the winner playing the second placed bowler.

The winner of that match then plays the top finishing player to determine the champion.

Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn said: “The stepladder system will keep the round robin section going until the very last game and reward the players who perform best. Under the previous system, the top finishing player would have commenced the play-offs on the same footing as the player who may have scraped through in fourth position.

“Now he is straight into the final with a guarantee of �10,000, win or lose. That is his reward for being the best performing player in the league.

“I think this will be a more entertaining format for the fans both at Potters and watching around the world on TV and if the player finishing fourth ultimately wins the tournament then he will have done it the hard way.”

Working in tandem with the World Bowls Tour, Matchroom Sport will be bringing their innovative production to Potters including the complete colour coordination of all the players and the 'Power Play' concept that was such a success last year.

A real hit with the live audience, each player can nominate one Power Play end per set and should they prevail then their shots tally will be doubled.

All matches are played over two sets of five ends each and there is a point for each set won. Each player contests five matches in total.

The finals are all over the same format with a one end tie break in operation to decide drawn games.

Matchroom Sport will be producing 18 one hour programmes for broadcast on Sky Sports as well as selected stations around the world.

For tickets and weekend bookings, go to www.pottersholidays.com.