Award a badge of honour for Sherriff
Aron Sherriff’s decision to focus on lawn bowls as a junior, not cricket and soccer, paid further dividends on Saturday night, as Jordan Abell reports for the Burnie Advocate. The 28-year-old New South Welshman was voted the country’s international bowler of the year for the third consecutive time by his peers. “To be thought that highly of by my teammates for the last three years just blows me away really,” Sherriff said. “Just representing Australia is a massive honour and something I cherish so much, and to be able to win these types of awards is the icing on the cake. “But I’ve got to acknowledge I’ve been a part of some fantastic Australian teams, and ones that have been ultra successful recently. “I have played a lot as skip and I get to reap the rewards of my team’s great lead-up work.” The world champion began his lawn bowls career at age 11 after a coach at the club his father was playing at, invited him to join their junior program. That man’s name was George Dawes, and to this day remains one of Sherriff’s greatest influences in the sport. “He took me under his wing for the first five years of my career and taught me” Sherriff said of Dawes. “I tried to juggle [lawncbowls], cricket and soccer for a while, but when I started making rep teams for bowls I decided to give up the other two. I guess it’s paid off.” Sherriff will attempt to lead NSW to an Australian Sides Championship victory over the next two days, which he is optimistic about achieving. “We didn’t get off to a great start, we got beat by South Australia [on Monday] morning, but we’ve won our three games since,” he said.
