2023 World Bowls Championships: Triples preview
The triples events at the 2023 World Bowls Championships on the Gold Coast are set to be some of the most exciting contests on the schedule, with a plethora of talent littered across the competing nations.
England are the men’s defending champions and Australia were the conquerors of the women’s category, and both are fielding strong teams yet again.
Beginning with the men’s field and the English will well and truly have the target on their backs as Louis Ridout, Nick Brett and Jamie Walker front up for Team England.
Both Ridout and Brett took home the triples gold at the Commonwealth Games last year, while Walker was a member of the victorious trio in Christchurch back in 2016.
Among the teams looking to wrestle the title away from the English grasp are Scotland’s Paul Foster MBE, Derek Oliver and Alex Marshall MBE, who boast five on-green World Championships gold medals and 11 Commonwealth Games titles between them.
Marshall himself has won a medal at six events in the past, dating all the way back to the 1992 edition in Worthing where he pocketed the men’s pairs and fours as well as the Leonard Trophy for his country.
The Australian contingent will see Corey Wedlock and Carl Healey make their tournament debuts with the red-hot Aron Sherriff as their teammate.
Sherriff has collected an abundance of trophies on Australian soil over the past 18 months and would love to add another World Bowls Championships gold to his collection after winning the fours title in Adelaide back in 2012.
New Zealand’s Chris Le Lievre, Lance Pascoe and Sheldon Bagrie-Howley will look to reclaim the gold that the country last won in 2000, and with Le Lievre’s intimate knowledge of the Queensland conditions the Blackjacks will be one of the hardest prospects for their opponents.
Ireland will field Stuart Bennett, Ian McClure and Martin McHugh in the competition, with the two latter bowlers clinching gold in the men’s fours in Birmingham last year, while the dangerous Welsh trio of Owain Dando, Chris Klefenze and Ross Owen loom large as they look to take home the title.
The women’s tournament will see Australia have none of the victorious 2016 team in its lineup, however the team of Dawn Hayman, Lynsey Clarke and Kelsey Cottrell boasts an abundance of quality that will see them as tournament favourites.
Hayman’s form on home soil over the past three years has seen her earn a maiden tournament call up, while two-time World Champion Cottrell has enjoyed an 18 months similar to that of Sherriff.
Clarke will retire from international bowls following the tournament, bowing out in her home city after claiming two on-green gold medals of her own throughout her career.
England’s Jamie-Lea Marshall, Lorraine Kuhler and Katherine Rednall will look to spoil the party and claim the nation’s first women’s gold medal at the World Bowls Championships since 2004.
Thabelo Muvango, Esme Kruger and Anneke Snyman all represented South Africa in the Birmingham fours decider last year and boast a sensational pedigree that will surely progress to the pointy end of the event, while Canada’s Emma Boyd, Baylee van Steijn and Joanna Cooper will strive for their own slice of glory.
Boyd is one to watch given her residency in Australia and knowledge of the Gold Coast greens and conditions.
New Zealand’s Leeane Poulson, Tayla Bruce and Val Smith will also be an extremely tough prospect for their opposition with Smith’s wealth of experience seeing her clinch two World Championships gold medals throughout her illustrious career so far.
2016 runner up Wales will bring Melanie Thomas, Bethan Russ and Laura Daniels, while Scotland’s Carla Banks, Stacey McDougall and Caroline Brown are also poised for a solid campaign.
The World Bowls Championships runs from August 29 to September 10, 2023, on the Gold Coast.
