The 2026 World Bowls Indoor Championship winners have been crowned.
Iain McLean, Scotland, won the men’s singles, Alison Merrien MBE, of Guernsey, lifted the women’s singles and the home crowd had plenty to celebrate when Australia’s Corey Wedlock and Kelsey Cottrell, the highest World Bowls Series ranked players in the event at No 2 and 11 respectively, clinched the mixed pairs.
Seven nations medalled – Scotland, Australia, Guernsey, Wales, Sri Lanka, England and Ireland, with Scotland coming out on top as the best performing with one gold, two silver and one bronze, closely followed by Australia with one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Thirty-three nations from around the globe competed in the 24th edition of the indoor showcase with the stellar field of 62 entrants, including eight confirmed Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games athletes, plus six former champions in this event and five World Bowls Junior Indoor Championship winners.
Co-sanctioned by World Bowls and the International Indoor Bowls Council, the five-day championship was staged at Ocean Grove Bowling Club, Victoria, Australia.
A festival of bowls, there was also an induction of Australia legend Betty Collins OAM into the World Bowls Hall of Hame in honour of her contribution to the sport during the opening ceremony, a pro am match with players and representatives from bowling clubs in the region coming together for a celebration game and a Bowls for Brisbane showcase between Australia and the Rest of the World and World Bowls continues to campaign for bowls to be included in the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.
New countries competing in the championship for the first time in the event were China, Croatia, Fiji, India and Niue.
Defending champions Australia’s Jack McShane and Sophie McGrouther from Scotland made bold bids to retain their titles winning bronze medals.
The event carried platinum World Bowls Series ranking points and Wedlock’s success now sees him the provisional No 1.
MEN’S SINGLES
Iain McLean, of Scotland, bagged the men’s singles.
He beat home favourite Corey Wedlock in the final 8-1, 2-11, 5-0 to become the 10th winner of the event from Scotland.
McLean, a former World Bowls champion of champions winner and World Cup winner, returned winning scorecards from all his group games beating England (Tom Holmes), Norfolk Island (Ian Lane), Malta (Shaun Parnis), Singapore (Effendi Mus), Niue Stanley Tafatu), Israel (Daniel Alonim) and Falkland Islands (Oliver Thompson). In the quarter-final he beat Spain’s Peter Bonsor, a former bronze medallist, 2-0 (6-4, 7-2) before booking his place in the final with a 2-0 (8-2, 7-2) triumph over Wales’ Carl Wood, mixed pairs winner 15 years ago when he partnered Welsh legend Betty Morgan MBE to success.
With two world and 10 Australian titles to his name, Wedlock topped his section which featured Spain (Peter Bonsor), Canada (Pat Bird), Turkiye (Ozkan Akar), Jersey (Josh Band), Isle of Man (Trevor Quayle), Hong Kong China (Rex Lo), Sri Lanka (Sandun Wimalasena) and Croatia (Slavko Perica) before he knocked out England’s Tom Holmes 2-1 (5-6, 9-4, 2-1) in the quarter-final and then brought his Merrylands BC club mate’s reign to an end in the semi-final accounting for McShane 2-0 (7-3, 7-1).
Scotland have dominated both singles events and hold the bragging rights for the men’s as 10 times winners from eight champions.
McLean now joins Graeme Archer, Darren Burnett, Colin Walker, Neil Spiers, Steven Allen (twice), Stewart Anderson (twice), and Michael Stepney.
The men’s singles final was marked by Scott Cassidy.
WOMEN’S SINGLES
Alison Merrien MBE won the women’s singles for a fifth time.
She beat Scotland’s Julie Forrest in the final 2-0 (7-6, 6-2) denying her a seventh win in this event.
Merrien, winner in 2009, 2015, 2018 which she successfully defended in 2019, was most recently a quarter-finalist 12 months ago when she lost to the eventual winner Sophie McGrouther. She and husband Ian also won bronze at that event in the mixed pairs – which she had won with Stewart Anderson, of Scotland, in 2019 when they were paired together as defending champions. This year, the Merriens reached the last eight.
In her campaign, 2024 IIBC president Merrien, who has 14 British Isles titles to her name, came out on top of her group with just one group game tiebreak defeat to Malaysia’s Siti Nur Hadziqah in a section which also featured England (Sian Honnor), Spain (Lisa Bonsor), Norfolk Island (Christine Jones), Turkiye (Rahsan Akar) and Niue (Josephine Peyroux), while 10 times Scottish indoor singles winner, Forrest looked like she was out of the competition going into the last day of sectional play until she beat Israel and was dealt a gift result by Canada when they beat Malta which saw her finish second in her group, behind Switzerland’s Laura Butler and just in front of Canada (Joanna Cooper), Malta (Rebecca Rixon), who endured a disappointing finish to her campaign to add this title to the World Bowls Junior Championship she won in 2024 after topping the section for the opening rounds, India (Nayan Moni Saikia), China (Sophia Jing), who came to her country’s rescue when their selected player encountered visa problems at the airport and was unable to fly to Australia, Hong Kong China (Gillian Ng), the youngest competitor in the event at 19, and Israel (Amaliya Levy).
Merrien was a tiebreak winner over 2023 World Bowls Junior Indoor Championship singles and mixed pairs winner Shauna O’Neill, of Ireland, in the quarter-final before notching up a 2-0 (7-2, 7-6) victory over Sri Lanka’s Kumari Mangos in the semi-final – Mangos winning her country’s first medal in this event – a bronze.
Forrest pipped Australia’s Kelsey Cottrell in the quarter-finals 2-1 (6-5, 1-9, 3-1), before reaching the final with a 2-0 (4-3, 8-2) win over her Scottish international teammate and holder Sophie McGrouther.
The women’s singles final was marked by Sarah Hope.
MIXED PAIRS
Australia’s Kelsey Cottrell and Corey Wedlock won the mixed pairs.
It was a second success in the event for Cottrell, victor in 2023 with Aron Sherriff, but a maiden win for Wedlock.
They beat Scotland’s former winners Julie Forrest (2013) and Iain McLean (2014) tying the first set 7-7 thanks to Wedlock making a big four on the last end to peel, before taking the second 8-5, aided massively by a count of five on the fifth end which saw them take the lead for the first time and followed by two singles on the remaining two end to clinch the gold medals and trophy.
Both countries had topped their groups with 100 per cent records. In the quarter-finals, Australia beat the composite pairing of Josh Band, of Jersey, and Lisa Phillips, of Australia, 2-0 (11-4, 7-2), while in the semi-final, they brought to a close the defending nation’s campaign to retaining the trophy won by Emily Kernick and Dominic McVittie, of England, a year ago when they accounted for this year’s representatives Sian Honnor and Tom Holmes 2-0 ( 9-3, 8-3).
Scotland, previous six times winners, beat husband and wife combo Joanna Cooper and Pat Bird, of Canada, 2-1 (11-4, 3-6, 3-0) in the last eight, before chalking up a 2-0 (6-5, 13-3) win over Ireland shaking hands with an end to spare in the second set against Shauna O’Neill and Adam McKeown, whose names both appear on the World Bowls Junior Indoor Championship mixed pairs roll of honour as gold medallists.
It’s the third Australian success in the event – the aforementioned victory three years ago by Cottrell and Sherriff and the year after thanks to Samantha Atkinson and Ray Pearse.
The mixed pairs was marked by Sharon Lynch.
At the medal ceremony, presentations were made by IIBC president Cath Harvey, IIBC acting secretary Gordon Woods and Adele Ryan, Ocean Grove BC chairman who was presented with a commemorative plaque and event shirt signed by all the players by World Bowls CEO Neil Dalrymple.
RESULTS
MEN’S SINGLES
Semi-finals: Australia (Corey Wedlock) bt Australia (Jack McShane) 2-0 (7-3, 7-1); Scotland (Iain McLean) bt Wales (Carl Wood) 8-2, 7-2).
Final: Scotland bt Australia 8-1, 2-11, 5-0.
WOMEN’S SINGLES
Semi-finals: Guernsey bt Sri Lanka 2-0 (7-2, 7-6); Scotland (Julie Forrest) bt Scotland (Sophie McGrouther, defending champion) 2-0 (4-3, 8-2).
Final: Guernsey by Scotland 2-0 (7-6, 6-2).
MIXED PAIRS
Final: Australia bt Scotland 7-7, 8-5
For full event results: https://tinyurl.com/4catzhm2
You can watch the livestreamed games throughout the championship on World Bowls TV: https://www.youtube.com/@world_bowls/live
The 2026 World Bowls Indoor Championship is supported by the Victorian Government through Visit Victoria.
