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Surrey star Yaz Hasan´s quest to show bowls stereotypes |
| "The club is in quite an open park that you have to walk past to get into the town centre," she said.
"I had always wanted to have a go but I only ever saw older people there. So when a junior taster session was held in the run up to the Olympics in 2012 I went along and fell in love with it. "No-one in my family plays so it was quite unique but I felt like everything happened naturally and that I just had it in me to play bowls. "I didn´t have to work hard when I was learning, it was kind of like it was meant to be and felt like everything fell in to place...I was supposed to find bowls. "I was really fascinated by how the game worked, how the bowl found its way to the middle of the rink." Nineteen-year-old Yaz, who plays indoors at Egham IBC, has not looked back and was recently on TV demonstrating her passion for the game as part of Channel Four programme Hobby Man with Alex Brooker and Inbetweeners´ star Joe Thomas. "I was away on holiday when I received an email from the production company, saying that they were going to do a show about different hobbies and that my name had been put forward by Bowls England," Yaz said. "I actually had laryngitis at the time and had to do a recorded Zoom meeting with hardly any voice which was interesting! "Alex was presenting a four-part series with a different celebrity each time, featuring three hobbies per episode so I accepted straight away as I thought it was a really good opportunity to get bowls on the map and get more people interested in the sport." Filming took place at West Berks IBC and Reading BC and the episode aired earlier this month. Yaz said: "It was really good the day and was great fun to do. Alex was lovely and the whole crew were very friendly. It was a good experience. "Both Alex and Joe thought along the lines of the stereotype with regard to bowls, that it was just for the older generation but that definitely changed as they both got very interested very quickly and were intrigued about the way competitions were played outside of what I had showed them."  Yaz, who is studying Law at Surrey University, has enjoyed a haul of accolades since taking up bowls
and this year qualified to the Bowls England National Finals in four events- women´s triples, two-wood singles, junior singles and junior pairs.
Her success started when she won the inaugural club under 14 junior singles championships. "That only came about after the taster session that I went to," she said. "I won that a couple of times in 2013 and 2014 and from there I plodded along with club comps and friendlies. "In 2017 I represented Surrey in the Amy Rose which was a brilliant experience because at that point I had only seen play between clubs, I had never been involved in any competitions that were bigger and knew nothing about it. "Having nobody in the family who played I knew very little and it was a massive eye-opener for me." After winning the Surrey area of the EBYDS in 2020 and reaching the National Singles regional final last year, Yaz is keen to get going with the coming indoor season. She said: "Last year I played in competitions such as the Egham Trophy and the Atherley which I absolutely loved. "I am really looking forward to getting involved and stuck in to indoors for what feels like the first time because of disrupted seasons due to Covid. "I have really taken to the indoor game- I like the consistency and I love that there are more people around when you play. It gets very exciting, more so when it comes in a spot where most would not expect it." Next weekend Yaz will be part of the Women´s British Isles Indoor Bowls Council Under 26 International series at West Denton as travelling reserve for England. "When I found out I had made the team sheet, initially as non-travelling reserve I was absolutely over the moon and I am so excited just to be going," she said. "I was called up to attend the trial two days before and I was actually meant to be going to Paris that weekend but we had cancelled because Covid cases had risen again. It was weird but it kind of felt like everything had fallen in to place again. "I was a reserve for the trial so only got to play half which was ten ends. "I surprised myself, I had never had a trial before but I was just there to enjoy it and because everything was last minute I could just learn from the experience without any stress. When I had the email I was shocked but so happy. "I can´t wait and am looking forward to cheering everyone on."  After becoming involved with coaching the junior section at Egham IBC, Yaz believes that the key to attracting more younger players to the game is schools.
She said: "It would be nice to get a bigger population of juniors. "People my age that are going to university could take it up and it would be good to prove that anyone from nine to 99 can play the game because it is for everyone. It is not the slow game that people may think it is and it is completely different for the national competitions and the Commonwealth Games too. "I think one option would be to try to link with schools as much as possible for taster sessions by using a shortmat in school halls. "Bringing in groups of schoolchildren to have a go during their school day is also a really good idea and a good introduction to bowls for younger kids. "For my age, a lot of it is putting the other side of bowls on social media that people do not see- so the very competitive, very exciting side of it. "It definitely helps to have taster sessions only for juniors so you can be around people of your own age and show kids that they are not alone. "When I started those who had joined with me slowly dropped out so it became just me and I was the youngest club member by around 40 years which isn´t very good. "Kids being with each other definitely helps. "The sport is constantly evolving but I would definitely want to encourage more juniors into the sport and more women in general, at all levels of the game, because it is inspirational to see women fill a green." Yaz also has big plans for her own future in the game. "Last season was a great all-rounder for me - I was the youngest in the county to achieve my county badge, that was the first year I was in the John´s Squad and we lost in the final and I reached the National semi-final of the junior pairs," she said. "In September 2019 I was chosen to be part of the Junior Youth Academy which never went ahead because of Covid, but getting there was pretty big. They were huge achievements for me. "I would love to be in the Commonwealth Games. "Seeing people win gold this year was amazing to witness and it gives me that hope, drive and determination that I can reach that point in the future - that´s the end goal. "In the meantime I want to break in to the international squad outdoors too, win a couple of national titles in the next few years and just make my way up." Sian Honnor 22nd September 2022 |
Updated 22nd September 2022
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