Wagga’s Disability Bowling team has taken home a major trophy from the Australia Day Championship, with two players also being picked for the national squad. Photo: Supplied.
A team of eleven bowlers from Wagga Wagga’s disability tenpin bowling league have claimed a major trophy at a prestigious bowling tournament in Canberra.
Taking part in the Australia Day Championships, the team travelled to Tuggeranong in the nation’s capital, where they took on more than 80 bowlers from across NSW and the ACT.
The Wagga bowlers put on a show, taking home a major honour – the Irene Coupland Memorial Shield, awarded to the team with the highest average across a series.
Bolwers Tim St Clair and Erica Woodward were standouts for the team, both earning spots on the national training squad.
Wagga Tenpin Bowling director Wendy Smith couldn’t contain how proud she was of the touring team and already has plans to establish a team for the national competition in Queensland later this year.
“The first competition for the year is the Australia Day championships, which is held at Tuggeranong in Canberra. There were about 90 bowlers with a disability that attended, and our guys, well, they did really, really well,” she said.
“We had a lot of success on the day, with a few individual medals being awarded to our bowlers, but the big one was winning the Irene Coupland Memorial Shield, which is one of two big awards from the day.
“For the first three games, the team bowls, we take the team’s average and compare it to the others. The team with the highest average across the teams wins the trophy.
“Everyone was really excited and proud to win that!”
Each of the bowlers who travelled to Tuggeranong participates in Wagga’s Saturday Bowling League, which boasts more than 40 bowlers each week.
Among the Saturday bowlers, many have intellectual or physical disabilities; however, due to the nature and inclusivity of tenpin bowling, many are among the best bowlers in the city.
“A lot of the bowlers come just to have that social interaction, and whether they’re good at bowling is irrelevant,” Ms Smith said.
“The sport has become so inclusive with rails, ramps and even special bowls that have handles that retract once they’ve been bowled; not a lot of other sports can provide that kind of inclusivity.”
With the popularity of the sport only growing among the disabled community in Wagga, Ms Smith said she would love to bring even more bowlers on board and potentially start a new league on a weekday.
“We’re basically at capacity on the Saturday,” she said.
“So many people just enjoy coming down, having a bowl and chat.
“Of course, we’d like to see as many people taking part as possible. If we get enough numbers, we can start pushing to have a league on Wednesday night, which I’m sure would also be very popular.”
