Our new Jackaroo
At just 19 years of age, Chloe Stewart is one of the youngest players entrusted with the honour of being an Australian Jackaroo. One-time child bowler, Chloe Stewart, is all grown up now and set to play for Australia in the open-age national women’s team, as Angela Crawford reports for the Macedon Ranges Guardian.
The 19-year-old has come a long way since she started out in the sport as a nine-year-old taking on the men at the Kyneton Bowling Club.
Chloe will be playing both singles and pairs for the Jackaroos in the Trans-Tasman Series from March 18-20 in Christchurch, New Zealand. She told the Guardian that if she plays well in New Zealand, she hopes to also be selected to play in the Asia-Pacific Championships later this year.
In April last year, Chloe was named Bowls Australia’s Female Under 18 Bowler of the Year. Since then, she has gone on to have a stellar year on the greens, winning tournaments far and wide.
Late last year she played in the Junior World Cup in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast where she won the Women’s World Under 25 title. She recently travelled to New Zealand to play in the Stuart Butter Burnside Invitation Pairs tournament, partnering with Australian open champion, Anne Johns.
The pair placed equal third in the mixed tournament, beating one of the Australian boys teams. Chloe will return to the Gold Coast to defend her Junior World Cup title from March 7-15, before flying to Christchurch to play in the Trans-Tasman Series.
When Chloe started out in bowls, the sport was not commonly played by young people, which was one of the things that first attracted her to it.
“It’s not a mainstream sport for people my age and I guess I liked that it was different. But now, for sure, there are a lot more younger people playing,” Chloe said.
“It’s a shame that there aren’t more juniors playing at Kyneton, when I first started out we had a lot of juniors here.
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“I played basketball too, and that’s really a team sport and I liked that, but I really liked that I could play for myself (in bowls), in singles, and that’s where I really shone throughout the years.”
Last week, Chloe won the Central Highland Bowls Division Women’s Singles Championship and will now go on to represent the CHBD at group level later this month. If successful at group level she will go on to play off against other group winners for a State Singles Championship title.
Chloe also currently plays with the Victorian senior women’s team and is women’s club champion at Kyneton. She is due to play other club champions from the Central Highlands on Sunday for the right to be named Champion of Champions in the women’s section for the division for 2015.
Q&A with Chloe
What are some of the perks of playing lawn bowls nationally?
Through bowls, I’ve visited every state and territory except the Northern Territory. And whenever I go away I’ve always got a place to stay around Australia. It’s incredible, all the people that you meet.
What is the best reward you have received playing bowls?
I was promised by mum that if I made the Victorian Under 18s team, that plays at the Australian Championships, that she would get me a dog, because I’d never had a dog before. In December, two months after the nationals, I ended up getting my first-ever dog, a little white Maltese Shitzu named Cooper.
What do you do in your down time?
I’m a thrill seeker, and whenever we go to Queensland and have time we go to the theme parks, even though I’ve been there a few times, and go on all the rides.
What’s your favourite pre-match meal?
Whenever I go away on bowls trips for Victoria and Australia we always go to a pub for a pub meal and I’ll usually have a chicken parma.
Now that you’re old enough, do you enjoy a drink with your teammates after the game?
They all have beer and wine, I might have an apple cider or vodka and raspberry. When I was younger and couldn’t drink or anything, the girls at the bowling club used to give me money and I’d go play on the chocolate machine. I’d bring out a big bag of chocolate and they’d buy me raspberries (lemonade), and then they’d send me home to mum all hyper.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done?
When I was in primary school I used to ride a unicycle and there was a big family fun night event and we put on a performance and dressed as clowns – that was pretty funny.
Most embarrassing moment?
I remember on a flight over to Perth I was watching The Big Bang Theory and I laughed so hard I starting crying on the plane! My teammate next to me starting crying in laughter at me, ha!
