Lawn Bowls are the first sport to name their Team NI squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games which commence in Birmingham at the end of July.
The men’s squad includes seasoned pair Martin McHugh and Ian McClure who both won gold medal winners at the 1998 games in Kuala Lumpur.
It will be McHugh’s seventh appearance at the Commonwealth Games while McClure will be competing at his sixth games.
Sam Barkley and Adam McKeown will be featuring in their first ever games.
Likewise, all five players in the Ladies squad - Shauna O’Neill, Megan Devlin, Ashleigh Rainey, Courtney Meneely and Chloe Wilson - will experience their first ever Commonwealth Games.
High performance coach Neil Booth, team manager in Birmingham, feels his squad is equipped to add to the 20 bowls medals that Northern Ireland have won at previous games.
He said: “Marty, Ian and myself won gold in 1998 (at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur) and the two old stalwarts are still hanging around and playing as well as ever.
“It is a really good foundation to have two players like that in a 10-player squad and as a squad we are going to lean on their experience a lot.
“Certainly the girls will lean on the experience that Marty and Ian have and we’re hopeful that they can inspire the others to success.”
Booth said he was “delighted” with the younger age profile of the ladies team.
“I’m delighted with the squad we have in the Ladies side and one of the things we wanted to do was change the age profile of the team,” he said.
“For a lot of the top countries the average age of the ladies is in their 20s but they just don’t pick young players for the sake of it.
“You have to be good enough and these five have proved they are good enough over the last number of years.”
The Northern Ireland squad will have a number of events to tune up for Birmingham.
“We have a Tri Nations series with Australia and Scotland, two of the strongest nations in the world, in May which is excellent,” said Booth.
“We also have the European Championships just a few weeks before it and two or three of the guys will be playing in that.”
LADIES TEAM
Singles - Shauna O’Neill
Pairs - Megan Devlin, Shauna O’Neill
Triples - Ashleigh Rainey, Courtney Meneely, Chloe Wilson
Fours - Megan Devlin, Ashleigh Rainey, Courtney Meneely, Chloe Wilson
MEN’S TEAM
Singles - Gary Kelly
Pairs - Sam Barkley, Martin McHugh
Triples - Adam McKeown, Gary Kelly, Ian McClure
Fours - Sam Barkley, Adam McKeown, Ian McClure, Martin McHugh
