Former resident Chris Rosanes, who won numerous lawn bowls titles at Club, District and Zone levels while he was living in Cobar, has recently been selected in the Australian Lawn Bowls Squad.
Chris moved interstate to Brisbane in 2018 and since then he’s well and truly made his mark on Queensland’s bowling greens.
The 11 year old kid that tried out social bowls on the Cobar Services Club greens in 2001 with his mum and dad is now based at Club Pine Rivers, where he’s won 11 Club Championships.
That includes four consecutive Singles titles, four consecutive Pairs titles, two Fours titles and a Triples title. In 2020 he won the QLD State Singles Gold Medal and an Australian Singles Bronze Medal.
Last year he was part of the QLD Premier League Champions team and this year he’s won the QLD State Fours Gold Medal and, last month playing with his QLD team, they won the Australian Sides Champions Alley Shield. (QLD hadn’t won the Alley Shield since 2014.)
Despite all his success, being selected into the Australian squad came as a bit of a surprise for Chris.
“The Australian Squad news was unexpected, something that was never on my mind of achieving,” Chris told The Cobar Weekly.
“But now that I am in the squad, it would be an honour and a privilege to wear the green and gold and represent Australia, whether that be in a Test Series, World Bowls and ultimately, Commonwealth Games.”
In conjunction with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Chris will be training with the Pathways Squad.
“It will involve camps, high performance programs and test matches against each other and, possibly other nations if I’m lucky enough to be chosen,” he said.
“It will be extremely difficult to break into the main team with the calibre that is in the squad.
“But who knows what the future holds!”
Chris said since moving to Brisbane there’s been a lot more opportunities to play bowls.
“Being the Sunshine State, bowls events are on all year round and I also train 2-3 times a week.”
Chris will now have the guidance of the Australian National Coaching Staff in Gary Willis, Karen Murphy and Lynsey Clarke.
He said there were a lot of people who helped him get to this point including former coaches/mentors Dave Edwards, John Rodis and Chris Cooney as well as his parents.
