Galgate's Gower ready to Power through busy schedule

A Galgate bowler has vowed to bounce back from her World Indoor Championships disappointment.
Janice Gower in action at the World Indoor Bowls Championships.Janice Gower in action at the World Indoor Bowls Championships.
Janice Gower in action at the World Indoor Bowls Championships.

It was a fine achievement for Janice Gower just to reach the last eight in Great Yarmouth but defeat in her opening quarter-final matches left the England international frustrated.

Gower lost to reigning champion Laura Thomas in the Ladies Matchplay and with partner David Gourlay at the same stage to Darren Burnett and Katherine Rednall in the Mixed Pairs.

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She said: “It was disappointing because I’d been playing really well.

“But the whole nature of this beast that is TV bowls is that if you don’t get out of the blocks quick you’re on the back foot.

“Certainly in the singles she just got out of the blocks quicker than I did.

“The mixed pairs we only just lost but it was the quarter-finals of the world championships.”

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Gower, who also reached the quarter-finals of the Champion of Champions event in Hayling Island at the weekend, is fully focused on a busy schedule that continues with a series of national qualifiers in Carlisle and Blackpool over the next few days and also includes the Sky Sports-televised International Open in Blackpool at the start of next month.

The national pairs champion said: “You come back and you’ve got to try and pick yourself up.

“I’ve come back because I’ve been away for four weeks and I’ve got nationals from Thursday to Sunday.

“We’re five weeks off the British Isles (Championships in Llanelli. Wales) which is big one for me because I’ve never qualified before.

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“You’ve got to turn yourself around pretty quickly and get up for the next lot of stuff.

“It’s the price of being successful.

“But I got to the last eight in the world and I’m playing the best bowls I’ve played in years.”

One big plus point for Gower at the World Championships at Potters Leisure Resort was the success of the World Bowls Tour’s live YouTube coverage of which the proud Lancastrian was a big part.

She said: “The commentary side was phenomenal.

“With the YouTube the CEO of World Bowls Tour said he was two years ahead of the figures he’d expected.

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“We had people watching in Madagascar and Tasmania (Australia) and we have the facility now where we hit over a million viewers (for the whole fortnight).

“They were long days but I thoroughly enjoyed it. That side of it helped me because after I got beat I was able to go straight into it.”

Also working for Sky and the BBC, Gower now faces the challenge of juggling her playing and media commitments.

She said: “I don’t want it to be at the detriment of my bowling because I’m still at the top of my career.

“Even at the world championships I had to say I can’t commentate the day before I play.

“At the moment I’ve got to do the juggle but playing’s got to take priority. It really has.”

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