Twisty’s Travels – UK Tour
The team has now arrived home in their ports of origin and the jet lag is starting to wear off. The two-week long tour gave the Jackaroos valuable insight into the Royal Leamington Spa greens ahead of the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Games. The tour also doubled as our final selection trials for the team.
It wasn’t a great start to the tour with our bags not arriving in London when we landed. Delays and weight restrictions meant that as we travelled across the world; our bags remained in Darwin. Our contingent waited between 3 and 8 days for their bags to arrive, nevertheless we made do as best we could in the lead up to the first Multi Nations between Australia, England, Wales, and Malaysia. Some inhouse games and a friendly against the local Royal Leamington Spa club members helped us adjust to the conditions.
The squad that toured consisted of 10 open men, 10 open women, 7 para, and 3 Vision Impaired (this included 12 debutants). The first Multi-Nations was a strong close-fought series, with our Jackaroos performing strongly; winning the majority of tests across the Open, Para, and VI disciplines.
Our second and final Multi-Nations Event for the Tour was between Australia, Scotland, and Ireland. Once again this was a hard-fought series, but our Aussies managed to again win the majority of tests. Results for all matches can be found on the Bowls Australia Website and Facebook.
After being lucky enough to tour with the Australian team in the 2018 and 2019 UK Tours (pre-COVID19); I can say that this was our most beneficial tour to date. The greens, style of play, and general conditions are most definitely out of our comfort zone. However, I’m confident that no matter the team selected for the Commonwealth Games we will have had ample preparation.
The squads for the 2022 Birmingham Games will be announced around the 30th May, with the team to travel mid-July, and the Games scheduled for the 28th July to 8th August.
