Geelong on pace for UBC

GEELONG is joining the revolution in lawn bowls, with confirmation the city will have a team in next year’s edition of the Ultimate Bowls Championship.

The UBC is a new format of the sport where teams from Australia, New Zealand and Asia made up of the world’s best players compete under modified rules, which allow players to score points from every bowl and for both teams to accumulate points in the same end. The result is much faster, higher-scoring games.

And, with $500,000 in prizemoney on offer across the three events, UBC is the most lucrative bowls competition in the world.

As the final event of the championship’s debut season approaches next month, UBC chief executive and director Mark Casey has announced the addition of a team from Geelong in 2020.

The team has already secured two top players to spearhead its campaign in Australian Jackaroo Ray

Pearse and Victorian champion Nathan Bush.

Pearse, 35, who plays out of the Cabramatta club in Sydney’s west, is in scintillating form, having recently won the Australian Champion of Champions singles title, as well as the singles of the 2019 MultiNations Championships.

Bush, also 35, plays for Eastern Park and has been a standout performers across two UBC events this year.

The owners of the new Geelong team include former bowls superstar and media personality Jess Eva and her partner, Norm Hogan; Geoff Williams, of Vic Tech Consultants; the Geelong

Bowls Club; Paul Ramia, of the Sphinx Entertainment Centre; and, Joe Issle Painting.

“We are beyond excited to buy into the Geelong team,” Eva says.