Junior World indoor Bowls Championships

Twenty four talented young exponents of lawn bowls from all over the world are poised to converge on Ballyclare in Northern Ireland. The small town (population just shy of £10,000) is the home of the Jim Baker Stadium, named after the 1984 world indoor singles champion.

Just a stone’s throw from the M2 motorway, twelve men and twelve women from fourteen countries will be doing battle for coveted world junior indoor singles titles from 4 to 9 December, and will also have their sights set on winning the world indoor junior mixed pairs title.

The men’s singles event (won for the first three years by Scotland’s Darren Burnett) was first established by the World Indoor Bowls Council (WIBC) in 1999. The women’s event (first winner Australia’s Karen Murphy) followed one year later.

Since then, players from the British Isles - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands - have tended to monopolise the honours board. But the WIBC recently joined forces with the sport’s bowls authority, World Bowls, and rebranded itself as the International Indoor Bowls Council (IIBC), and there is now a real international feel to the championships.

The players from the so-called ‘home countries’ – England’s Harry Goodwin and Ruby Hill, Ireland’s Adam Rankin, Daniel Spratt and Shauna O’Neill, Scotland’s Bradley Buchan and Kara Lees, Welsh hopes Ben Matthews and Lauren Gowen, and Guernsey’s Ben Harvey and Catherine Snell will still start as favourites for the titles.

Most of the above have already made their mark at senior level: England star Harry Goodwin, for example, won his national outdoor Champion of Champions title in August, and Ruby Hill, his partner in the mixed pairs, has won three national indoor titles in five years.

Kara Lees, from the Abbeyview club in Dunfermline, currently holds the Scottish and British Under 25 singles titles, while fellow Scot Bradley Buchan, from Fraserburgh, who started playing when he was eight, has played for his country at Under 18, Under 25 and full senior level, and won a bronze medal the last time this event was played.

Adam Rankin and Shauna O’Neill have already played for Ireland at senior level, while O’Neill represented her country in the Commonwealth Games. Welsh hopes Ben Matthews and Laura Gowen are highly experienced players, who are expected to mount a strong challenge, and there are high hopes for Guernsey’s Ben Harvey and Catherine Snell.

However, the home heroes will have to be on their mettle to meet the challenge presented by some brilliant overseas competitors, including high profile players like Australia’s rising star Nick Cahill, who has been making waves Down Under, and his fellow Aussie Brianna Smith.

Ellie Dixon played for Norfolk Island in the Commonwealth Games in July, and turned in some impressive performances. Last March, Namibian Ronan Olivier caught the eye when, while celebrating his 18^th birthday, he competed in the senior world indoor championships in Bristol, while the Hong Kong Youth Development Team keeps churning out players of the highest calibre, and we can expect a strong challenge from Chow Ho Yin and Yu See Sin.

Owen Kirby, from Kitchener, who is 23, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his fellow Canadian, the legendary Ryan Bester, who made his debut on the world stage two decades ago. Kirby has been practising hard in the basement of the family home, while 21-year-old Amy Spence, from Prince Edward Island is hoping to bring her experience in curling and five-pin alley bowling to bear.

Israel’s Shira Eshel rolled her first bowl at the famous Ramat Gan club eleven years ago, since when she is proud to have represented her country at senior level.#

It is also good to see ‘new’ countries venturing on to the world stage. Hungary and Switzerland, for example, were both represented in the recent World Champion of Champions event in Wellington - and there will be a warm welcome for the likes of Hungarian duo Mate Dobos and Sarolta Schrank, and Switzerland’s Larissa Rubin.

IIBC President Peter Brill, from Wales, who is looking forward to the event, said: "Finally our sport has been restored to some degree of normality following the trauma of the Covid 19 outbreak and the repercussions of the pandemic.

“Bowlers have proved to be resilient throughout and we look forward to welcoming the players from 14 countries to the famous and friendly Jim Baker Stadium. Our sport needs more than ever to re-establish the togetherness of bowlers in fierce competition whilst showing to the world our ability to compete in a friendly atmosphere."

In both the men’s and women’s singles, over five hectic days, the players will compete in two round-robin groups of six, aiming to clinch places in the knockout stages. In the popular mixed pairs event, most competitors will team up with partners from their own country, and competition is likely to be intense, if, perhaps, a bit more relaxed than in the singles.

FIELD AND DRAW…

COUNTRY – MALE - FEMALE

AUSTRALIA - Nick Cahill - Brianna Smith

ENGLAND - Harry Goodwin - Ruby Hill

HONG KONG CHINA - Chow Ho Yin (Jason) - Yu Yee Sin

IRELAND - Adam Rankin / Daniel Spratt - Shauna O’Neill

NORFOLK ISLAND - no male entry - Ellie Dixon

GUERNSEY - Ben Harvey - Catherine Snell

USA - Angel Gomez - no female entry

CANADA - Owen Kirby - Amy Spence

WALES - Ben Matthews - Lauren Gowen

HUNGARY - Mate Dobos - Sarolta Schrank

NAMIBIA - Ronan Olivier - no female entry

SCOTLAND - Bradley Buchan - Kara Lees

SWITZERLAND - no male entry - Larissa Rubin

ISRAEL - no male entry - Shira Eshel

GROUP DRAW…

MEN – Section A: Nick Cahill (Australia); Harry Goodwin (England); Chow Ho Yin (Hong Kong); Adam Rankin (Ireland); Ben Harvey (Guernsey); Angel Gomez (USA). Section B: Owen Kirby (Canada); Ben Matthews (Wales); Mate Dobos (Hungary); Daniel Spratt (Ireland); Ronan Olivier (Namibia); Bradley Buchan (Scotland).

WOMEN – Section A: Brianna Smith (Australia); Amy Spence (Canada); Yu Yee Sin (Hong Kong); Shira Eshel (Israel); Kara Lees (Scotland); Laura Gowen (Wales). Section B: Ruby Hill (England); Catherine Snell (Guernsey); Sarolta Schrank (Hungary); Shauna O’Neill (Ireland); Ellie Dixon (Norfolk Island); Larissa Rubin (Switzerland).

MIXED PAIRS – Section A: Cahill & Smith (Aus); Goodwin & Hill (Eng); Harvey & Snell (Gue); Dobos & Schrank (Hun); Gomez & Dixon (USA/NFI); Spratt & Rubin (Ire/SWZ). Section B: Kirby & Spence (Can); Buchan & Lees (Sco); Chow Ho Yin & Yu See Sin (HKC); Rankin & O’Neill (Ire); Matthews & Gowen (Wal); Olivier & Eshel (Nam/Isr).