At the Guernsey 2023 NatWest International Island Games Indoor Bowls Opening Ceremony, International Indoor Bowls Council (IIBC) president Alison Merrien MBE announced the venue for the World Indoor Bowls singles and mixed pairs (writes Janice Gower). This competition, being held in April 2024, will be hosted at the Guernsey Indoor Bowls Stadium which is also playing host to this NatWest International Island Games this week.

The team from the Guernsey Indoor Bowling Association have been working to host the NatWest International Island Games safe in the knowledge that the work they put in will also bear fruit for the World Indoor Bowls Championships (IIBC) next year. A live streaming set-up has been completed allowing the team to stream two rinks with live commentary and unlike some of the fixed cameras seen at other events, four 4k cameras have been dedicated to each rink providing a mix of camera angles and audio from the rinks. 

Everything learnt at the NatWest International Island Games will be taken forward to provide an improved service for the IIBC.

Guernsey Indoor Bowling Association’s secretary, Catherine Bonsall, reacted to the news by saying: “It’s been a huge pleasure to host the Island Games, and now we get to show our mettle again with the IIBC. It’s a big responsibility for us that we don’t take lightly, so we’re going to continue working hard to give competitors and spectators alike the best experience possible.”

We were also able to get comments from IIBC president, Alison Merrien MBE, adding to Catherine’s comments that “Guernsey presented a strong bid supported by their newly gained experience of hosting the Island Games, plus the unique story of Guernsey often exceeding expectations beyond its small size on the world stage. We have no doubt Guernsey will do the IIBC proud and look forward to developments over the coming months.”

This of course not being the only big news of the day, the Island Games’ bowls competition has officially begun. We can officially confirm that all players are now present with our final competitor arriving from Bermuda today so the Hougue du Pommier Stadium is abuzz with celebrations from eight different nations. It’s already been a strong day of competition and we’ve seen some outstanding performances, with particular mentions to the Falkland Islands’ men’s triples team, and most certainly the Guernsey women’s triples team who have so far won their games by a collective score of 40-14 against two very tough opponents. We have no doubt that this is just the beginning of a great competition that we look forward to keeping you updated with.

Worth noting that we’ve got the open triples for the first two days of the competition, and then we commence with the open pairs and singles from Tuesday.