Where are they now
Adam Jeffery is the most successful bowler to come out of the ACT and was the 107th male to represent Australia during what can only be described as a superb era in the sport.
Australian greats Steve Glasson OAM, Kelvin Kerkow OAM, Brett Duprez and Rex Johnston OAM were all going around with Jeffery in the early 90’s to early 2000’s.
Jeffery, a proud Australian, has many stories to share from his time at the top of the sport, he played with and against the world’s best, travelled the world creating history and setting unbeatable records along the way.
Jeffery still holds the record of three consecutive Hong Kong International singles gold, he was the inaugural winner of the Australian Super 6 Singles, he was involved in the last ever ACT team to claim national honours and was part of the Australian triples and fours teams who won back-to-back Asia Pacific Championship gold.
Jeffery was part of the inaugural Australian U’25 team that toured Malaysia and Hong Kong in 1993 under the supervision of coaches Keith Poole, Bob Middleton and Robbie Dobbins who were all influential in getting the national U’25 program off the ground.
Current Australian selector Kelvin Kerkow has fond memories representing Australia alongside Adam Jeffery.
“Adam was a great team player that was well respected amongst the players, he always brought plenty of positivity and enthusiasm and made it a great environment to play in,” Mr Kerkow said.
When people used to tune in to ABC on a Saturday afternoon for Super Series bowls, the common faces representing Australia were Jeffery, Glasson and Johnston who together barely lost a game on the carpet at Tweed Heads.
Internationally, Jeffery’s greatest achievement was a silver medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia alongside Kevin Walsh, Rex Johnston and Stewart Davies, although, Jeffery still believes when the Australian men won the Leonard Trophy at the 2000 World Championships in South Africa, it far outweighed any individual success he had.
The Leonard Trophy is awarded to the best performing country at the championships and by winning a singles silver, triples silver and pairs bronze medal, it was enough to get the Australian’s over the line.
Jeffery was a member of the St Johns Park Bowling club and played over 70 games for NSW in the mid stages of his career.
Jeffery was making a name for himself Australia wide as a renowned singles player and winning the prestigious Golden Nugget was one of many singles tournaments he racked up over the years.
In the Golden Nugget final against Steve Anderson, Adam Jeffery has an interesting story to tell.
“I was getting belted by Steve until a lady in the crowd collapsed and there was a break in the game,” Jeffery said.
“It was a real momentum shift and after the break I came good and levelled the match 24 all.”
“I decided to take the mat right up and with my first bowl I sunk the jack in the ditch and sat six inches off it, on an 18 second green Steve went mighty close, just flopping into the ditch each time.”
“That poor lady that fell ill probably won the match for me.”
Jeffery says that South Africa was the scariest country he ever played bowls in.
“During the World Bowls trials in 1999, the hotel we stayed at was held up and there was a murder downstairs, funny enough after getting selected the team returned and guess what, we were staying in the same hotel,” Jeffery said.
Mark Jacobsen was Jeffery’s favourite player to compete with; however as a youngster coming through the ranks it was Cameron Curtis that he looked up to.
When Jeffery recalled the most memorable moment from early in his career, it was at the 1996 Alley Shield when his name was read out to be part of the senior Australian squad for the first time, it was also a sad one because his idol Cameron Curtis had missed out.
Jeffery felt obliged to apologize to Curtis for getting …
