At 71, Sue Curran is the oldest woman competing at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. She is also visually impaired and a member of New Zealand’s “Blind Jacks” lawn bowls team. Despite her age, however, Curran claims she is the “youngest” bowler in the team.
“The youngest bowler by age is 22, but she has been playing for about 10 years,” she clarifies. “So I’m the youngest, or least experienced member of the team.”
The Hamilton resident played netball and tennis in her youth, but didn’t take up bowling until 65, after becoming a widow. Her eyesight had deteriorated badly, and after being on her own for several years, she says, lawn bowls was “something to do”.
Just 18 months into her bowling career, Curran was representing her country at the Glasgow Games, where she competed in the paired competition for an impressive fourth. Four years on, she says she could never have predicted she would be on the Gold Coast at her second Commonwealth Games, having also taken part in two blind world championships.
Visually impaired bowlers such as Curran are entitled to what is known as a “director”, someone who can instruct them on the composition of the green – and help with tactical manoeuvring. Curran’s director is Ann Muir, who also happens to be 71, and is a sighted, provincial-level bowler back home.
“I am Sue’s eyes,” explains Muir, who has coached Curran since 2015. “I set her up on the line where I think she should be for taking the shot. I tell her the length, but she has to have the feel [for how fast or slow to bowl]. For para athletes, it’s all about the feel, because they can’t see very far up the green.”
Muir’s guidance is essential for Curran, who has no depth perception. “I might see a black bowl, yellow bowl, blue bowl, but I can’t tell where they are,” she says. “I might just know that one is on the left of the other, but I can’t see distance at all.”
To compensate, Muir and Curran have developed a routine where Muir coaches Curran from behind, and tries to help her “visualise” the green.
“I stay behind her, talking to her about keeping a long lever [swing], staying down and following it through,” Muir says. “Then, when the bowl comes to rest, I use a clock [to explain where the bowls are]. So 12 o’clock is behind the jack, and I’ll tell Ann that it’s so many mats [away] – because they [a para bowler] can feel the length of a mat, or the width of a mat from the jack.”
Muir says she does her best to “paint a picture” for Curran, even if she’s not sure Curran “visualises” in the way she imagines. For her part, Curran tries to picture the green, using a monocular between turns to help. She is allowed the monocular during competition, so long as she does not use it on the mat where she sets herself to bowl. Instead, she relies on Muir to help her position herself effectively.
“I walk onto the mat with her and figure out the line we’re going to take,” Muir says. “Then sometimes I’ll move her heel around to give her a bit more angle, or cut the angle down.”
A particularly difficult challenge for the team, Muir says, is when she thinks Curran should bowl a draw shot (typically executed with a lighter touch, and more of an arc than a faster bowl). Muir finds it difficult to explain how much further or shorter she wants Curran to bowl because, as a sighted person, she focuses on how many more or less rotations of the bowl she thinks they need – something Curran can’t see.
“Sue might have played a shorter bowl, and I’ll say ‘a little bit more’ speed [is needed], but instead she’ll send one firing down,” she laughs. “But how much is a ‘little bit more’? I know we need two more rotations and we’d be there, but she can’t see that. So I might say [instead] ‘beat your last bowl, remember what it felt like.’”
Muir admits she can find the experience of coaching a visually impaired athlete “frustrating”. “The hard part is, I play at top level [in a sighted competition] and I expect her to do the same things [as a sighted athlete],” she says. “So I’ve learned tolerance, and that I can’t expect the same standards.”
Another challenge of working in such an intimate team, both women admit, is success often depends on the level of trust they have, such that Curran must constantly place her faith in Muir’s judgement.
“Yesterday for example, I decided I didn’t want to play the hand that Ann wanted me to play,” Curran says. “And it didn’t work; there was a reason Ann wanted me to play a particular shot. But I thought I knew better; I judged it on what I could see, and thought there was a better way to go. I was wrong.”
Despite these hiccups, Curran says she couldn’t ask for a better coach. “She’s brilliant. I’ll never have her knowledge, not unless I live to about 150 years,” she laughs. “She understands the game inside out. She thinks I don’t listen to her, but I do try and take everything in.”
Muir reciprocates the appreciation, saying she is “never” disappointed in her charge, even after Curran’s pair lost Sunday’s round four clash against Scotland 5-23.
“She never lets me down,” says Muir, adding she is in awe of what para athletes like Curran achieve. “You imagine being blindfolded. Number one you don’t have any balance at all. Then you’ve got no idea where you are.”
Curran adds: “It’s a lot of hard work, and a lot of practice. We spend a lot of time on fitness as well. People don’t think that comes into it, but it does. You’re on your feet for two-and-a-half hours [at least].”
Despite Sunday’s loss, Curran still has a chance to go one better than Glasgow and win bronze if her pair can triumph over England on Monday morning. And, thanks to this Games having a fully integrated schedule where para and non-para events are mixed throughout the day’s programming, there should be a healthy crowd.
This is a first for the Gold Coast, with the 2018 Games featuring 23 para-athlete medal events across seven sports: a 73 per cent increase on medals and 45 per cent increase on athletes than the Glasgow Games. Curran says the change has been “brilliant”, and notes how “loud” the Australian crowds have been.
“Last Commonwealth Games, we played all the para sports first,” Curran says. “That meant the stands filled up for the fully sighted players, but not for us. Here, where it’s mixed, the stands were filled the last couple of nights. It didn’t matter [to the crowd] whether they were watching para or able-bodied sport.
“I think it’s brilliant. I’d like to see the Olympics do it too, because you’re really part of a team, not separated, or second level, backwards.”
