Ambassadors

I started playing bowls when I was 14. My dad, Gordon, is a successful player and my grandad, Patrick Lennon, is a social player in Bedfordshire. We used to go on holiday and play as a family. Now my dad and I play together and he was in the national final with me, which was brilliant.

I took up the game at Maidenhead Thicket Bowls Club before joining Desborough Bowls Club, which has won most of the national and county titles and brought in a lot of young players for the Berkshire Under 25 team.

We have 15 lads at the club under the age of 20. Nationally, the ability of some of the younger players, from 15 to 18, is frightening; they are incredibly talented, and we want to market these people so that they become the face of the game. It has such a stigma as an old man’s sport and getting people through the door is the hardest part.
I played cricket and football but once I tried bowls I was hooked. I played more and more and eventually gave up the other sports and concentrated on bowls. Now I play six out of seven days a week from two hours to five hours.

I reached the National All England Final in 2004 and have qualified for the national finals for five out of six years; won 15 county finals and 16 club titles.
Once you are in the sport you can see how hugely competitive it is. But it is a minority sport and I feel quite passionate about seeing it grow. Desborough has about 1,000 members, but like every bowls club is losing members because of the average age, so it does open days and those who come usually sign up. It’s one of those sports where you have to try it, but once you do you are hooked.

To be a good player you have to have a certain amount of natural ability. You also have to have a strong competitive streak, good communication skills, patience and a huge amount of hand-eye co-ordination. There’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes - extra training, physical conditioning, psychology, and learning the rules of the game.
On the social side I have made a huge amount of friends. We have lots of different evenings: concerts, dinner dances, discos, themed evenings like curry nights. And compared to a lot of sports it’s not expensive, once you’ve paid your membership fees and bought a set of bowls.

My aim is to become professional and take part in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. In the last Commonwealth Games the bowls were run by performance co-ordinator John McGuinness who invited top younger players to train with the Commonwealth Games players, and I gained a lot of experience. Next year, the England captain is coming to my club to play with me competitively.

Last year I arranged a charity match with a Scottish bowler and raised £3,500 for a hospice in Blackpool and we’re doing the same this year through the Julian Haines website for bowlers.

My picture has been on national finals posters, I’ve been in a couple of bowls magazines and in national and local newspapers.

I’ve played all over England and I’m thinking of going out to Australia, where the sport is absolutely huge, to gain some experience in another country.

I’d like to enter more tournaments to qualify for TV performances. I know I can do it with the right tools but it’s costly. I’ve got one sponsor, www.bowlingtours.co.uk, who I’ll be working for as an ambassador, but I’m looking for others to back me so I can hopefully break into the international side and be among the top players in the world some day.