Patron role for snooker ace Parrott

BOWLS: HAD it not been for a rainy day on Merseyside, John Parrott might have become master of the bowling greens rather than king of the baize.

Parrott was a keen crown green bowler as a teenager, but a sudden downpour switched his attention from bowls to snooker and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now a commentator for the BBC and an occasional horse racing pundit for the Corporation, the 1991 world snooker champion has never lost his affection for bowls.

So he was delighted to accept a recent offer to become the Honorary Patron of the British Crown Green Bowling Association.

Parrott (46) started playing bowls with his father Alan at Wavertree Park in Liverpool.

He quickly displayed his ability and it was not long before he reached the quarter-finals of the Junior Waterloo in Blackpool.

Said Parrott: “I managed to win a few trophies and also a doubles with my father.

“I also used to go and watch the game at the top competition level, and remember seeing people like Brian Duncan, Mike Leach and Norman Fletcher.

“One day we were playing at Wavertree when it started raining, and Dad said ‘It’s getting too wet, we’ll go off.

“We dropped off the bowls at home and went around the corner to a snooker hall called the Dudley Institute, where my father was a member.

“ I had a go, and soon you couldn’t keep me out of the place.”

Parrott went on to achieve superstar status on the green baize, but he has never forgotten his roots, and, even though he is a keen golfer these days, he has not ruled out a return to the bowling greens of Merseyside.

He said: “It has had the image of being an old man’s game, but I’ve never really understood that, and believe that it’s a great game for kids to take up.

“The game has always been the same and anything I can do to help it along then I’d be delighted.”


WATERLOO and Taunton defeated Springbank 6-5 in an Inbev Winter Bowling League top-of-the-table thriller.
Springbank had five winners to Waterloo’s three, but Charlie Roberts’ 21-7 defeat of Kyle Kirby secured the aggregate for the latter.

Nimble Nook strengthened their ‘B’ Division title claims with a 9-2 defeat of close rivals North Chadderton.