Forsyth looking forward to BPL return
New Zealand Blackjack and former Bowls Premier League (BPL) champion Ali Forsyth is filled with excitement ahead of his tournament return for the one of the competition’s new franchises, Melbourne eXtreme.
Forsyth, who famously bowled his New Zealand squad to victory in an epic tiebreak in the APL03 decider, has been absent from the competition since BPL08 in 2018.
Speaking on Bowls Australia’s (BA) ‘The Right Line’ podcast, the World Champion said the format is one of the most enjoyable yet challenging as maintaining momentum is difficult, with an expectation that a team will almost always blemish on one occasion.
“You’d suggest [winning every game] it’s impossible, and you look at the standard of some of the teams in recent years, and some of the long winning streaks has been unbelievable,” Forsyth said.
“It’s such a hard event to go through because it takes just one bowl to go against you and all of a sudden you’re on the end of a loss.
“It can be quite difficult at times to be able to park that quickly because you’ve got such a short turnaround until the next game but that’s what you have to to and keep that glass half full mentality.”
While Forsyth is unsure of what the certain team roles will be for he and his teammates of Carla Krizanic and Matthew Flapper, the 41-year-old understands the in-form players are the ones that must be utilised.
“My only philosophy on the format is that you’ve really got to strike with who’s playing well so you’ve got to park the ego if you’re having a rough little stretch,” he said.
“You’ve got to be prepared to be the one playing the nine bowls and let the other two do the damage because it’s such a short timeframe and you can’t afford to be out there for long periods if you’re not going well.”
Catch up on all of ‘The Right Line’ episodes via Apple, Spotify, Google or Anchor.
