Check it out - Jess used to be a lawn bowls champion!
- 20 Sept 2018
Oh Jess - you keep surprising us! Not only does it turn out you’re actually a dab hand at this renovating caper...once upon a time you were also a lawn bowls champ. And we have the photos to prove it!
How amazing is that? But Jess didn’t always see it as quite so cool.
“Well, first of all, I was a virgin till I was 21 because it’s really hard to have sex when you’re a lawn bowler!” she laughs. “No guys want to touch your boobs!”
So how did she actually get into the sport?
“It’s all because Mum thought I was in a street gang,” Jess laughs. “I was actually just out riding my bike. Anyway, she’d go and make me play lawn bowls with Nan every weekend from 11.”
Fast forward a few years, and Jess got good. Really good! So good, in fact, she began playing in a professional league.
“I missed out on the Comm Games in 06,” she says. “But I played for Australia a couple of times in the Australian championships.
“We played in the professional leagues. I was one of the first women to ever play males bowls. I was in country Victoria, but I played in the male team for the Richmond Bowling Club.”
These days Jess doesn’t have the time to play seriously, and an injury stopped her progressing further. And now she can no longer do it competitively, it just doesn’t have the same allure.
“Everyone for my birthday always surprises me with a game of barefoot bowls, and I just can’t do it. It’s not fun,” she says. “I just end up just drinking a lot!”
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