Port Wakefield brothers Josh and Nathan Studham sign for Premier League bowls club Holdfast Bay
TEENAGE brothers Josh and Nathan Studham travel 220km for matches and have given up two other sports in their pursuit of lawn bowls success.
TEENAGE brothers Josh and Nathan Studham travel 220km for matches and have given up two other sports in their pursuit of lawn bowls success.
The talented duo have been recruited by Holdfast Bay and will make the three-hour round trip from Port Wakefield for home matches throughout this pennant season.
“The driving back and forth can get a bit tiring but we’re getting the hang of it,” Josh, 14, says.
“It’s a tougher competition so it will make our bowls come up to a higher standard.”
The pair made a winning start at their new club last weekend, as Josh helped the Premier One team to victory away to Gawler and Nathan featured in the second side’s triumph over Marion.
The siblings offer vastly different accounts of their first taste of bowls.
While Josh, a state under-18 player, first tried night bowls aged nine and entered pennant competitions a year later, it took Nathan a little longer to embrace the sport.
“I got asked to fill in for a night bowls team when I was about nine but I didn’t really want to,” Nathan, 15, says.
“I just chucked them down and didn’t really like it that much because I thought it was boring.
“Then last year I saw Josh play at the nationals I thought I was missing out a bit and wanted to be out there.
“Now I’m loving it.”
Both brothers are also talented footballers, dividing their time between Woodville-West Torrens’ junior squads and their local club Hummocks-Watchman.
The Balaklava High students previously played basketball and cricket as well but had to drop both sports to concentrate on bowls.
“It was a tough decision because I was really into my cricket but I’ve went with bowls and I’m pretty happy,” Nathan says.
“My friends at school always ask me ‘why are you playing bowls, it’s for old people’, but they have no idea how competitive it is.”
Josh hopes lining up alongside such bowlers as state player of the year Ashley Klose will help the pair see finals action this season.
He says they will continue nightly practice sessions at Port Wakefield Bowling Club and play together in state pairs tournaments.
“There’s usually a rivalry between us but it’s pretty even,” Josh says.
“None of us like to lose.”