Amy’s gold quest
Teacher Amy Pharaoh’s summer holiday will be different to most – she is representing England in the World Bowls Championships on Australia’s Gold Coast.
England bowler Amy Pharaoh with Principal Nigel Whittle at Waltham Toll Bar, where she is Head of PE.
Waltham Toll Bar Academy’s Head of PE – a former Commonwealth and world champion and silver medallist at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham - is in a team of five women that will take on an international elite.
The 44-year-old will fly Down Under on 22nd August, spending six days acclimatising and training before the two-week competition starts.
Amy said: “We’re travelling to Australia to medal, and I’ll be very disappointed not to. But I recognise it is going to be very tough out there.”
She will compete in the women’s fours in the first week of the championships, and in the pairs during the second with Sophie Tolchard, who she partnered in Birmingham.
“It would be nice to go one better than we did last year and get gold. But the odds are stacked against us,” Amy said.
“It would just be great to be in a position where we are battling for a medal.”
Amy travels to Leamington Spa at the weekend (22nd / 23rd) to join up with her England teammates and support staff, training and taking part in some matches.
More than 400 competitors from 44 countries will compete for honours in Queensland, playing at five different bowls clubs in the first World Championships since 2016.
She sees the main competition coming from the host nation, New Zealand and South Africa. There will be four groups of nine in the competition, followed by a knockout phase.
She captained England women to victory at the British Isles Bowls Championships in Ayr in June. Two teams were entered and ended up playing each other in the final, with Amy on the losing side.
It is 30 years ago Amy first qualified for the national championships and made further local headlines the following year when she made her England Junior debut, aged just 15.
“I don’t think I missed out as a teenager. I had very supportive parents, with mum and dad often picking me up from a bowls match and dropping me at friends. I was fortunate to have friends who understood.
“I did start so young but I was lucky to have the success I did, which gave me the motivation to carry on.”
She won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 in the pairs competition, having won bronze in Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006).
She stepped away from elite competition for 10 years and, during that time had a boy, Harry, who’s now nine.
“I came back for the Commonwealth Games last year. I did question whether I still had it in my locker to compete at that level. But I answered my own doubts.”
The Cleethorpes Bowls Club member plays competitively three or four times during the week and twice at the weekend.
She thanked Waltham Toll Bar Academy Principal Nigel Whittle and her colleagues in the PE department for their support.
“Nigel’s been terrific, as has the team here. Without their backing, I would not be able to go to Australia and am grateful to them.
“As an Academy, a focus is on developing enrichment opportunities and visits beyond the classroom. I’m hoping my story can be inspirational to some of our students.”
Nigel congratulated Amy on her success.
“We are very proud as an Academy to have Amy representing England at bowls and competing at an elite level,” he said.
“Hers is an inspirational story and I think it’s fantastic for our students to see her focus and dedication.
“We wish her and her teammates all the best on the Gold Coast and, hopefully, she will return to the Academy with a medal.”
