Five countries are still on the hunt for gold medals at the World Bowls Indoor Championship at Ocean Grove Bowling Club, Victoria, Australia, as finals day approaches tomorrow (Saturday).
After an action-packed knockout round day, among the final four in the men’s and women’s singles are defending champions Australia’s Jack McShane and Sophie McGrouther from Scotland who are looking to become the first in the history of the championship to both retain their titles.
Three men and four women have clinched back-to-back titles, but never before have the reigning champions won gold medals on consecutive years.
Among the women’s field still bidding for world glory are two of those achievers – Julie Forrest from Scotland (2013 and 2014 and 2022 and 2023) and Alison Merrien MBE, of Guernsey (2018 and 2019), but more on that later.
MEN’S SINGLES
In the men’s singles, the four section winners went unbeaten in all their group games – Australia’s Corey Wedlock, defending champion Jack McShane, also of Australia, Wales’ Carl Wood and Iain McLean, of Scotland – and they maintained their form in the quarter-finals beating group runners-up England’s Tom Holmes, South Africa’s Charles Mathewson, Shannon McIlroy, of New Zealand, and Pete Bonsor, of Spain respectively.
Wood recovered from only winning one end in the first set against McIlroy to take the second and the tiebreak as he looks to lift his second World Bowls title – the first the mixed pairs of this event in 2011 with Welsh legend Betty Morgan MBE, while the highest ranked World Bowls Series player in this event Wedlock (No 2) was a tiebreak winner over Holmes. McShane recorded a 2-0 win over Mathewson ending his hopes of being South Africa’s first ever winner of this title, with Scotland’s Iain McLean, a bronze medallist in the 2025 World Bowls champion of champions, getting over the line against Bonsor, a former bronze medallist who was appearing in his seventh World Bowls Indoor Championship.
The semi-final line-up pits Wales against Scotland, leaving the the two Aussies to go head-to-head.
WOMEN’S SINGLES
In the women’s singles, three countries will compete in the semi-finals – and between the four competitors left out of a starting field of 30, they have already won this event 11 times!
Guernsey’s Alison Merrien MBE is chasing her fifth title and will play Sri Lanka’s Kumari Mangos who is appearing in her first semi-final, while serial winner Scotland’s Julie Forrest is on the hunt for her seventh victory takes on the challenge of international colleague and defending champion Sophie McGrouther.
After four days of gruelling sectional rounds, Merrien beat England’s Sian Honnor to top her table ending Honnor’s unbeaten record in the championship and reversing the result of the British Isles women’s singles final just a few months ago. Mangos meanwhile finished runner-up in section two to Australia’s Kelsey Cottrell, while Forrest got out of jail beating Israel in her final group game and getting into the qualification position when other results went her way much to the disappointment of 2024 World Bowls Indoor Championship winner Rebecca Rixon from Malta who had led their table for the first three days of the tournament. Switzerland’s Laura Butler topped that section in the end, with Forrest snatching second. McGrouther took the honours in section four with just one loss as she bid to retain the title with her Celtic rival Shauna O’Neill, bronze medallist in the 2025 champion of champions, in second.
All four women’s quarter-finals went to tiebreaks. Merrien beat O’Neill – needing a fourth end to decide their result, Mangos bounced back from losing the first set against former Australian Open women’s singles winner Butler to clinch the second set and the tiebreak, while Scotland’s Forrest pipped Cottrell and McGrouther set up an all-Scotland clash in the final four when she ended the hopes of Honnor being England’s winner for the first time in 10 years.
Interestingly, both the men’s and women’s defending champions play their own nation’s representatives this year.
MIXED PAIRS
The mixed pairs final will be an Australia-Scotland clash and will feature three former winners.
Kelsey Cottrell, winner in 2023 with Aron Sherriff, and Corey Wedlock will carry the home nation’s hopes in the final against 2013 victor Julie Forrest and Iain McLean whose name is on the trophy in 2014. Forrest won with Jonathan Ross, while McLean partnered Lynn Stein.
In the quarter-finals Ireland beat bronze medallists from 12 months ago Guernsey’s Alison and Ian Merrien 2-0 (6-2, 10-7), who were one of two husband and wife combs making it out of the group stages – the other being Canada’s Joanna Cooper and Pat Bird who narrowly lost to Scotland 2-1 (11-4, 3-6, 3-0). Merrien was champion in 2022 when as returning women’s singles champion she was paired with Stewart Anderson, of Scotland, who was the men’s holder.
Two of the other quarter-finalists were composite pairings put together to ensure all countries had a partner for the mixed pairs. England won both sets against Oliver Thompson, of the Falkland Islands and Australia’s Sophie Kurtzman 2-0 (13-1, 5-3), while Australia bt Josh Band, of Jersey, and Lisa Phillips, of Australia, also 2-0 (11-4, 7-2).
In the semi-finals, the Aussies 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), while the Scots chalked 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.
RESULTS
(The tables are decided on game points, sets won, set points, net total of shots)
MEN’S SINGLES
Section 1: Australia (Corey Wedlock) 24 points; 2. Spain (Peter Bonsor) 15 (13 sets won); 3 Canada (Pat Bird) 15; 4. Turkiye (Ozkan Akar) 12 (9); 5. Jersey (Josh Band) 12 ((7) (7.50 set pints); 6 Isle of Man (Trevor Quayle) 12 (7) (7); 7. Hong Kong China (Rex Lo) 9 (6); 8. Sri Lanka (Sandun Wimalasena) 6 (5); 9. Croatia (Slavko Perica) 3. Footnote: Croatia’s Slavko Percia withdrew and the results in section one which he was in have been adjusted as per the conditions of play.
Section 2: 1. Australia (Jack McShane, defending champion) 21; 2. New Zealand (Shannon McIlroy) 18; 3. Fiji (Parmeswan Padayachi) 12 (8); 4. India (Sonowal Putul) 12 (6) (8); 5. Ireland (Adam McKeown) 12 (6) (7); 6. USA (Tom Richeson) 3 (6); 7. Namibia (Waylon Wentzel) 3 (3); 8. China (Yong Min Mao) 3 (1).
Section 3: 1. Wales (Carl Wood) 21; 2. South Africa (Charles Mathewson) 18; 3. Guernsey (Ian Merrien) 15; 4. Malaysia (Muhammad Idham Amin Bin Ramlan) 9 (7) (8); 5. Macao China (Johnny Ng) 9 (7) (7.50); 6. Sweden (Pontus Pamkvist) 6; 7. Japan (Masahiro Kawamoto) 3 (3); 8. Switzerland (Markus Merz) 3 (1).
Section 4: 1. Iain McLean (Scotland) 21; 2. England (Tom Holmes) 15 (12); 3. Norfolk Island (Ian Lane) 15 (8); 4. Malta (Shaun Parnis) 9 (8); 5. Singapore (Effendi Mus) 9 (7); 6. Niue Stanley Tafatu) 6 (3); 7. Israel (Daniel Alonim) 6 (2); 8. Falkland Islands (Oliver Thompson) 3 (3).
WOMEN’S SINGLES
Section 1: 1. Guernsey (Alison Merrien MBE) 15 (9); 2. England (Sian Honnor) 15 (8); 3. Malaysia (Siti Nur Hadziqah) 12; 4. Spain (Lisa Bonsor) 9; 5. Norfolk Island 6 (5); 6. Turkiye (Rahsan Akar) 6 (2); 7. Niue (Josephine Peyroux) 0.
Section 2: 1. Switzerland (Laura Butler) 18; 2. Scotland (Julie Forrest) 15 (9); 3. Canada (Joanna Cooper) 15 (8); 4. Malta (Rebecca Rixon) 12; 5. India (Nayan Moni Saikia) 9 (8); 6. China (Sophia Jing) 9 (5); 7. Hong Kong China (Gillian Ng) 6; 8. Israel (Amaliya Levy) 0.
Section 3: 1. Australia (Kelsey Cottrell) 15; 2. Sri Lanka (Kumari Mangis) 12 (7); 3. Singapore (Serena Tiong) 12 (6) (6.50); 4. Wales (Amy Williams) 12 (6) (6); 5. South Africa (Elma Louw) 6 (5) (5.50); 6. Macao China (Pian Lai) 6 (5) (5); 7. Fiji (Seral Mar) 0.
Section 4: 1. Scotland (Sophie McGrouther, defending champion) 15 (9) (10); 2. Ireland (Shauna O’Neill) 15 (9) (9); 3. USA (Giulia Gallo) 15 (6); 4. New Zealand (Tayla Bruce) 9; 5. Japan Saki Takayama) 3 (4); 6. Namibia (Huipie Van Wyk) 3 (2); 7. Isle Of Man (Caroline Whitehead) 3 (1).
Quarter-finals: Guernsey bt Ireland 2-1 (6-0, 5-7, 3-2); Sri Lanka bt Switzerland 2-1 (5-10, 0-10, 2-1); Scotland (Julie Forrest) bt Australia 2-1 (6-5, 1-9, 3-1); Scotland (Sophie McGrouther, defending champion) bt England 2-1 (4-11, 9-0, 5-0).
MIXED PAIRS
Section 1: 1. Guernsey 9 points; 2. Spain 6; 3. Turkiye 3; 4. Sri Lanka 0.
Section 2: 1. Canada 9 (6 sets won) (6.50 sets points); 2. Croatia/Australia 9 (6) (6); 3. Wales 9 (4) (4); 4. Norfolk Island 3.
Section 3: 1. Falkland Islands/Australia 9; 2. New Zealand 6; 3. Macao China 3; 4. USA 0.
Section 4: 1. Australia 9; 2. Malaysia 3 (3) (3); 3. China 3 (2) (2) (-7 net total of shots); 4. Isle of Man 3 (2/2/-22)
Section 5: 1. Ireland 6 (4); 2. Defending champions 6 (3) (3); 3. Singapore 3 (2); 4. Sweden/Australia 3 (1).
Section 6: 1. Scotland 6 (5); 2. South Africa 6 (3) (3) (-8); 3. Fiji 6 (3) (3) (-37); 4. Namibia 0.
Section 7. 1. England 9; 2. Malta 6; 3. Hong Kong China 3; 4. Israel 0.
Section 8: 1. Jersey/Australia 6 (3) (4); 2. India 6 (3) (3.50) (7); 3. Switzerland 6 (3), (3.50) (4); 4. Japan 0.
Quarter-finals: Ireland bt Guernsey 2-0 (6-2, 10-7); Scotland bt Canada 2-1 (11-4, 3-6, 3-0); England bt Falkland Islands/Australia 2-0 (13-1, 5-3); Australia bt Jersey/Australia 2-0 (11-4, 7-2).
Semi-finals: Australia bt England 2-0 (9-8, 8-3); Scotland bt Ireland 2-0 (6-5, 13-3).
The men’s and women’s singles semi-finals take place at 9 am tomorrow (Saturday), followed by the mixed pairs final at 11 am, the women’s final at 1.30 pm and the men’s final at 3.30 pm. All times are AEST.
Follow live scores, results and draw on the official World Bowls Match Centre: https://tinyurl.com/4catzhm2
Watch live all day 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.
Meet the World Bowls Indoor Championship mixed pairs finalists. Credit: World Bowls
