British Isles Championships- Ladies U25 Singles Preview
Next week sees our Scottish champions compete across 14 different disciplines to test their might against their fellow national championship winners in the 2024 British Isles Championships. We have been speaking with all the players and teams prior to the event, to get some insight into their feelings ahead of such an occasion, as well as looking at their journey to Leamington Spa. We also sought some insight on the bowlers, by asking them to pick between one of TVs most divisive duos.
We managed to catch a word another one of Scotland’s successful youngsters, the reigning ladies under 25 Scottish champion, Rachel Pirie, who plays her bowls out of Broughty Bowling Club, in Dundee, after a successful start to her bowling career at Kinglassie Bowling Club, in Fife. Having started bowling at just 6 years old, it was Rachel’s family who enticed her into the sport; her grandparents, father and cousin were all bowlers in the family, so it seemed only right for Rachel to eventually join them on the green. She took a hiatus from bowls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, returning to play for the first time in stage one of the national championships last year, before parading to the title.
When asked about her journey to victory at Northfield last year, Rachel said:
“it is all a bit of a blur; I still can’t believe it”.
The 20-year-old talked of the perseverance and persistence that was required to qualify from her district, before she joked about the “countless scares” that she gave her travelling support at the national finals. She pointed to her family’s support as the main reason for her success and expressed a great deal of gratitude to them.
Rachel is tackling the daunting prospect of the British Isles Championships the right way, taking it one bowl at a time, and seeing it as another opportunity to play the game.
We also took the opportunity to ask Rachel about her motivation, to come back to the sport and stay, and Rachel highlighted her friends in the sport, saying:
“The chance to make lifelong friends, and create so many amazing memories, is something I couldn’t stay away from”.
When asking for Rachel’s favourite bowler, she answered without hesitation, saying that her dad, Gordon, will always take top spot in her eyes. She said this is because of the amount of aid that he has given her during her time playing, from chauffeuring her to East Fife Indoor Bowling club at 6am on a Saturday morning, to all that he has taught Rachel in the game of bowls.
We ended our chat with Rachel, asking the all-important question: “Ant, or Dec?” Rachel was confident in her answer saying that Dec trumped his counterpart.
Rachel will be in action in the second session of Day 1 (26th June at 13:30) where she will face off with Wales’ Lowri Powell in the semi-finals.