Former champions boost Blackjacks
A host of former world champions headline the Blackjacks side named to contest the 2020 World Bowls Championships on the Gold Coast later this year.
Six of the 10 players have previously tasted world championship success, while Tayla Bruce, Debbie White and Andrew Kelly are set to make their debuts.
Proving a winning combination with an unbeaten 10-game streak at the Asia Pacific Championships, Gary Lawson and Shannon Mcilroy will team up in the men’s pairs.
Lawson will be looking to emulate his last appearance at World Bowls in 2008, when he won gold with Russell Meyer in the pairs, while skipping Meyer, Richard Girvan and Andrew Todd to glory in the men’s fours.
Mcilroy will also have fond memories of this stage, defeating
Canada’s Ryan Bester to claim the singles title in Christchurch in 2016, before going on to secure the World Champion of Champion singles crown just a matter of months later.
In the men’s fours, Ali Forsyth and Mike Kernaghan retain their place in the gold-medal winning team from 2016, this time joined by Lawson at three and Kelly off the front. Forsyth, Kernaghan and Kelly will also combine in the men’s triples.
The women’s singles will see world No 1 Jo Edwards hunt the one title that has eluded her throughout her career.
Edwards, who will be featuring in her fifth world bowls contest, will then team up with debutant Bruce in the women’s pairs, while Bruce will join the women’s fours as lead.
Stamping her mark as an international skip and reflecting her double national title haul in January, Katelyn Inch will be charged with skipping the women’s fours and triples respectively, with the vastly experienced Val Smith providing steady influence at three.
Playing off the front in the triples and two in the four is the in-form White, last year showing her mettle on the international stage, narrowly losing the World Champion of Champion singles to Australia in a gripping finale.
The World Championships will see 36 nations converge on the Broadbeach, Helensvale and Musgrave Hill greens from May 26 to June 7.
Remember this name. Alyssa Nakken.
She made history this week when she became the first ever female coach in Major League Baseball.
Nakken has joined the San Francisco Giants ahead of spring training.
For Nakken, making history means being ready each day to make an impact in her own distinct way while ignoring the critics and anyone who figures she is unfit for an on-field baseball job based on her gender.
‘‘No turning back now, you’re in it. Here we go,’’ she said.
‘‘I’ve been ready for a challenge like this, something new.’’
Nakken has the credentials to be in the role.
Not only does she have a masters in sports management,