2024 Trans Tasman preview
The Right at Home Jackaroos will jet across the ditch for the latest instalment of the age old rivalry with the New Zealand Blackjacks in what is set to be a sensational three days at Naenae.
It marks the first edition of the event on Blackjack shores in close to a decade, with the Australian contingent looking to defend the crown that they won in 2022.
The format will take a new shape in February, with overall match wins to decide the series across the Open, Development and Para teams.
After a successful World Bowls Championships campaign last year, the Open men’s squad remains unchanged with Aaron Wilson remaining in the coveted singles slot to face off against a familiar opponent in former World Champion Ali Forsyth.
The duo will also skip their respective teams in the men’s pairs, with Wilson to team up with Aaron Teys to tackle Forsyth and his partner in Shannon McIlroy in what is set to be one of the prime matchups of the competition.
The triples sees Australia’s victorious Gold Coast trio of Corey Wedlock, Aron Sherriff and Carl Healey face off against the likes of Tony Grantham, Lance Pascoe and Sheldon Bagrie-Howley.
Teys will join Wedlock, Healey and Sherriff in the fours, as the quartet aim to pick up where they left off from Broadbeach last September.
Their foes for the tournament will be Grantham, McIlroy, Pascoe and Bargrie-Howley.
In the women’s competition, Kelsey Cottrell will take the reigns in singles as she looks to mount a challenge to 2023 World Champion in Tayla Bruce.
The pairs will place Commonwealth Games champions in Ellen Ryan and Natasha Van Eldik up against the highly credentialed duo of Selina Goddard and Katelyn Inch in what shapes as one of the most scintillating contests of the event.
Triples action plots Kristina Krstic and Dawn Hayman with Cottrell as they face off against the likes of Gold Coast silver medallists in Leeane Poulson, Bruce and Blackjacks superstar Val Smith.
The fours pits Krstic, Ryan, Hayman and Van Eldik against Poulson, Goddard, Smith and Inch in a tantalising matchup.
Australia’s Para squad will see Serena Bonnell, Louise Hoskins, James Reynolds, Tony Bonnell, Jacky Hudson (Rob Hudson director) and debutant Calvin Rodgers (Jason Scheutjens director) up against Teri Blackbourn, Julie O’Connell, Pam Walker, Mark Noble, Steve Delaney (Dean Wood director) and Kerrin Wheeler (Dean Wood director) in a tantalising matchup.
At the 2024 Trans Tasman, the two nations will field development teams to battle it out in a third competition at the tournament to give bowlers valuable experience at international competition level.
The Australian men’s team will see Nathan Black take the singles position and pit him against Ray Martin.
Black will play as skipper for Nick Cahill in the pairs as the duo face Finbar McGuigan and Keanu Darby.
Matt Lucas, Cody Packer and Ben Twist will front up in the triples against Martin, Taylor Horn and Blake Signal.
Cahill will join them in the fours as they take on McGuigan, Horn, Darby and Signal.
Jamie-Lee Worsnop assumes the singles mantle in the female category as she lines up against Briar Atkinson.
Kylie Whitehead and Chloe Stewart will take on the pairs discipline against Bronwyn Stevens and Debbie White, while Cassandra Millerick, Brianna Smith and Worsnop line up in the triples against Atkinson, Kim Hemingway and Sarah Scott.
Finally, Millerick, Smith, Whitehead and Stewart will form the fours team to battle Hemingway, Stevens, White and Scott.
The 2024 Trans Tasman runs from February 2-4, 2024 at the Naenae Bowling Club with live streaming on Bowls New Zealand’s YouTube channel. View the event programme and schedule HERE.
