How has Australia performed at the World Bowls Indoor Championships?
The World Bowls Indoor Championships kicks off at the Warilla Bowls Club on Sunday with a plethora of talent from across the globe to descend on the seaside suburb of New South Wales.
It will be the second edition under its new moniker, with the tournament previously known as the World Cup Singles event until 2019, where Jo Edwards and Gary Kelly took home the respective gongs.
2022’s tournament saw the competition run under a new name with an added mixed pairs discipline for the nations to compete in, with Scotland’s Michael Stepney and Julie Forrest clinching the singles titles with the Scottish and Guernsey combination of Stewart Anderson and Alison Merrien MBE capturing gold in the inaugural team event.
Despite not boasting titles in recent events, Australia boasts a rich history at the competition, with a combined 11 titles across the men’s and women’s singles categories, with a further eight runner-up appearances.
Jeremy Henry has been the pick of the title winners, securing six crowns in the men’s singles in front of the adoring fans at his home club, but what’s more impressive is that he achieved a three-peat not once, but twice.
The Northern Ireland-born star captured his first gold in 2012, having won his place in the event at the 2011 Australian Indoor Championships. That year Ireland’s James Talbot was his victim in the decider, with New Zealand’s Tony Grantham and fellow Australian Tony Wood his next two victims.
Iain McLean took home the 2015 prize, but Henry was back the very next year to overcome Andrew Kyle for a fourth crown before defending his title on two further occasions to cement his dominance over the tournament.
Other men’s winners include Mark Casey at the inaugural event in 2005, Kelvin Kerkow OAM in 2007 and Leif Selby in back-to-back triumphs in 2009-10.
Australia’s sole female winner at the tournament is Victoria’s Judy Nardella, who claimed the 2007 crown with a victory over South Africa’s Lorna Trigwell, who is a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
Karen Murphy AM progressed to two finals, falling to Edwards on both occasions in 2009 and 2010, while Rebecca Van Asch fell just short of Guernsey’s Lucy Beere in 2018.
On home soil and in sensational form, both Kelsey Cottrell and Aron Sherriff will be itching to add their names to the illustrious list of names to have conquered this tournament across all of its formats, as will the likes of Serena Bonnell, Grace Moloney, Chloe Morrison and Lauren Banks who are filling in for the mixed pairs discipline to assist nations with sole participants.
The World Bowls Indoor Championships runs from May 7-12 at the Warilla Bowls & Recreation Club, and will be live-streamed on World Bowls’ Facebook page on the final two days of the competition.
