High Performance squad announced for 2023

Bowls Scotland are delighted to announce our High Performance squad as preparations get underway for the 2023 season.

The male and female players selected will now represent Scotland at the 2023 British Isles Internationals at the National Centre for Bowling, Ayr from Friday 30^th June – Sunday 2^nd July. 10 additional male players and 10 additional female players will also be selected to join the team for the British Isles Internationals via an open recruitment process and trial on Sunday 7^th May. This event has been re-formatted for the coming year and we look forward to facing England, Ireland, Jersey and Wales on home soil.

Attention for the para, women and men’s squads will then turn to the World Bowls Championships. Those selected will represent Scotland in Queensland, Australia from Tuesday 29^th August – Sunday 10^th September. This will be the first World Bowls Championships held since 2016 due to various postponements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the para squad, Garry Brown, Rosemary Lenton, Kevin Wallace, Pauline Wilson, Robert Barr, Melanie Inness, Sarah Jane Ewing and George Miller have all been selected following their gold medal heroics at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Another four experienced players make up the quota of players in the physically disabled (PD) categories. Michael Simpson makes a return to the performance programme after previously representing Team Scotland at the Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. He is joined by regular pairs partner, Danny Porter, following their triumph in the inaugural National Para Open Pairs in 2022. Last year’s Gents National B7/B8 Singles champion, Glen Livingston, and regular Scotland international, Mary Wilson, round off the PD players. In the visually impaired (VI) category, there are once again inclusions for newly crowned International Blind Bowlers Assocation B3 Singles world champion, John Fox, and two-time Bowls Scotland B2/B3 Ladies Singles winner, Mary Stevenson. Chris Morrow and Jim Aitken have also been selected as Directors for the VI players.

Our 11-strong women’s squad includes two Commonwealth Games silver medallists and experienced Scottish internationalists, Caroline Brown and Stacey McDougall. Dee Hoggan also returns to the team after impressive displays at Birmingham 2022. Scotland’s five double medallists from the 2022 Bowls Europe Championships, Dawn Anderson, Kimberley Dodds, Megan Grantham, Emma McIntyre and Rachel Sinclair are all included. The team is completed by multiple outdoor and indoor national title winner, Claire Anderson, former Commonwealth Youth Games representative, Carla Banks, and 2022’s British Isles Indoor Under 25 Singles winner, Kara Lees.

The men’s squad features no less than five Commonwealth Games gold medallists in Darren Burnett, Paul Foster MBE, Alex Marshall MBE, Derek Oliver and Neil Speirs. Birmingham 2022 Men’s Singles bronze medallist and two-time Bowls Scotland National Singles champion, Iain McLean, is also included in an experienced line up. The squad is complimented by five youthful but high-quality players, who have all previously medalled at the Bowls Europe Championships, in Jason Banks, Greg McLaughlin, Connor Milne, Mark O’Hagan and Darren Weir.

Excited to be working with his new squad of players, Bowls Scotland’s Para Head Coach, Bob Christie, said: “The selected squad demonstrates the growing talent within para bowls in Scotland. It is a mixture of experienced and new talented players willing to compete for places at future events and develop into medal contenders. Myself and the coaching staff have every confidence in the group of players to performance at the highest level.”

Women’s Head Coach, Wendy Purdie, added: “This is an exciting new women's High Performance squad that I am looking forward to working with in 2023. The strength of women's bowling has increased over recent years and within the squad we have a good balance of previous squad members together with newly selected members. Working together as a squad our main goal is to develop players and achieve great results for Scotland on the British and World stage.”

Finally, Men’s Head Coach, Frazer Muirhead, commented: “We received a very high standard of applications, and it was a difficult decision to reduce the numbers down to the selected squad of players. We have a great mix of world level players and experienced young players. Myself and the coaching team look forward to working with the players and ultimately aim to have a successful 2023 representing Scotland.”

The full 2023 High Performance squad is as follows:

Para

Garry Brown (Blackwood Victoria BC – Physically Disabled)

Rosemary Lenton (Crichton Royal BC – Physically Disabled)

Glen Livingston (Friockheim BC – Physically Disabled)

Danny Porter (Gala BC – Physically Disabled)

Michael Simpson (Strathmiglo BC – Physically Disabled)

Kevin Wallace (Clackmannan BC – Physically Disabled)

Mary Wilson (Trinity BC – Physically Disabled)

Pauline Wilson (Willowbank BC – Physically Disabled)

Robert Barr (Hyndland BC – Visually Impaired)

John Fox (Spateston BC – Visually Impaired)