Canadians Selected to Prestigious World Bowls Challenge Team
Ottawa, ON | May 2, 2019
Canada’s Kelly McKerihen and Ryan Bester have been selected to join an international all-star team to take on the Australian Jackaroos, reigning world and Commonwealth champions, in the inaugural World Bowls Challenge.
This new blockbuster international bowls event is being hailed as the flat green sport’s equivalent to golf’s iconic Ryder Cup and will be staged in Australia later this year. The exciting ten-a-side format will be staged from November 29-30 at the magnificent Moama Bowling Club.
Bester (Hanover, Ontario) is a former World Pairs Champion and has been consistently ranked in the top five in the world over the past few years. “It’s a great honour to be chosen to represent the World Team in the Challenge,” said Bester. “It will be great to play with some of the legends of the game instead of playing against them.” Currently playing out of Broadbeach (Australia), Bester was recently ranked in the top spot of the Australian National Ranking. Reflecting on the event to come, Bester had this to say, “Moama is a great club. I have been lucky to represent them in the Bowls Premier League over the last 5 years and being able to represent the World Team at this club is fantastic. Hopefully Kelly and myself can be part of the first winning team.”
Along with Bester, the other men selected to the World Team include Scotland’s Alex Marshall (MBE), a six-times Commonwealth Games gold medalist and six times world indoor singles champion, Darren Burnett (SCO), a gold medalist at last year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, former Games singles gold medalist and world indoor singles champion; Shannon McIlroy from New Zealand, the reigning world singles and champion of champions titleholder; and Gary Kelly from Ireland, who won the recent World Cup at Warilla.
McKerihen (Toronto, Ontario) has been Canada’s top singles player for over a decade. In 2017 she made the decision to relocate to Australia to play out of the Clayton Bowls Club and was recently ranked 14th in the Australian National Rankings. She is looking forward to playing with some of the world’s top athletes in the Challenge, “It’s going to be great teaming up with this amazingly talented group of players in November to play against the Australian side. It’s a very unique opportunity to get to play along side people you usually play against internationally, and I’m really looking forward to this amazing opportunity!”
She will be a part of a formidable women’s side featuring New Zealand’s Jo Edwards MNZM, the reigning Commonwealth Games singles gold medalist, world singles champion of champions and a six-time World Cup winner; Colleen Piketh from South Africa, a former Commonwealth Games pairs gold medalist; English superstar Ellen Falkner, who has three Commonwealth Games gold medals, four world indoor titles and a world fours gold medal to her credit; and England’s rising star Katherine Rednall who at 23 years of age has already struck gold in the world indoor singles championship three times and collected bronze at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia in the women’s triples.
With files from World Bowls
For more information on the Canadian Lawn Bowls team, please contact:
Anna Mees, Executive Director, Bowls Canada Boulingrin
amees@bowlscanada.com
About Bowls Canada Boulingrin
Bowls Canada Boulingrin (BCB) is the governing body responsible for lawn bowls in Canada. The BCB mission is to advance the sport of bowls in Canada. For more details on Bowls Canada Boulingrin and the sport of lawn bowls, visit
www.bowlscanada.com.
