Gary Ellis (Crown Green)

Gary Ellis (Crown Green)

Born in Whitefield in 1973, Gary now plays for Greater Manchester County.  He is a member of Tonge Bowling Club and Middleton/Nimble Bowling Club in Oldham.

His Dad, Tom, got him interested in bowls and he started playing more seriously at the age 13. Today his brother, Gregg also plays.

He plays with a Taylor 2lb 11oz deluxe. He first started playing with them at the end of 1996 and his game immediately improved, having previously used bowls from another manufacturer. He's not a fan of changing bowls regularly and has stuck with them through good times and bad!

His nickname was "Silverfox" but this seems to have dewindled away since his hair is more white than silver.

Gary is now going to tell you his most funniest moment in bowls:

"Playing in a pairs with my mate Paul Heap in Blackpool a couple of years ago.  We were 20-10 down and lying one in on a very difficult mark - so our bowl was about 2 yards wide of the jack.  He said he wanted to strike at our opponent's nearest bowl about 3 yards short of the jack on the basis that if he was to take that out successfully, we'd count three, as our other bowls were 3rd and 4th.

He struck and took our counting bowl out clean - leaving us one down, shake hands and come off! One of the worst strkes I've ever seen and after he hit it I was at one end of the green on the floor laughing and he was doing the same at the other.  To be fair to Paul - we had treated it as a weekend away and (unusually for me) had been out until 4 in the morning - which is not good when the following days tournament starts at 10am!

I most admire in the bowling world Paul Heap- ha! Brian Duncan was brilliant and so difficult to beat. Somebody once said to me 'what's the key to beating him - I said it's simple - you have to lead well, make two when you have chance, step in if he makes a bad lead, save two when you can, play through well if there's an opportunity to and strike well. If you don't do one of the above things well, you'll probably get beat (because he'll do them all well) and if you do them well-it only means that you've a chance of beating him, providing you have some luck!

I'm a big Man United fan but not keen on the amount of money in football nowadays!

Achievements:

Mirfield Old Bank two man team (with C Brown) - winners 2012, 2017

Won The Hillcrest Classic for the 5th time! (2016)

Waterloo Handicap 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014

Spring Waterloo 2010

Talbot Trophy 2004, 2007, 2016

Champion of Champions 2004, 2011, 2016

All England 2003, 2012

Greater Manchester Merit 2003, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017