Forster and Jones still on a high after mixed pairs bronze
At 64 and 75 respectively, Joy Forster and Bruce Jones from Brisbane are just a little bit older than many Commonwealth Games medal winners, Barbara Miller reports for ABC Grandstand Sport. The couple is one half of the Australian team which has taken away bronze in the para-sport mixed pairs Lawn Bowls in Glasgow, one of five para-sports being contested at these Games. The other half of the team is Tony Scott, who like Joy is vision impaired, and his brother Peter Scott, who, like Bruce, is known as the director. What Joy and Bruce lack in youth, they make up for in enthusiasm. “It was magnificent, it was unreal, and I’m still floating pretty high,” Joy says of her Games success. “To see Joy achieve what she has has just been something special for me,” Bruce said. It’s a modest statement from a quiet man with a vital role to play in securing bronze for all four members of the team. Bruce essentially acts as Joy’s eyes when they are out on the green. When the jack is thrown, a distance is called from the boundary markers, so Joy knows where to aim for. “Then Bruce tells me where my bowls have finished, where the opposition’s bowls have finished and what shots to play,” Joy explains. “He’s a very important part of my bowling career,” she says, although she likes to joke that she sometimes wonders if Bruce is vision impaired too. Bruce says his skill is “being pretty accurate with my calls”, measuring only with his eyes the exact distance Joy has bowled. “I must admit he does do a good job,” Joy says. He certainly did in Glasgow. Bowling is hardly the most obvious hobby or career when you are vision impaired, and it’s perhaps for that reason Joy was in her 50s before she began the sport. She says she has always ‘loved my bowls’. For a long time it was simply an armchair hobby. “I sat home and watched it for years on TV,” she said. “(I) thoroughly enjoying watching it on TV, but never once did I ever think that I was going to be part of a Commonwealth Games.”
