GLOUCESTER Bowling Club’s Jim Grech represented the region at the NSW/ACT Blind Bowls State Championship held locally last weekend.
He competed in Category B1, “directed” by good friend and fellow bowler Rob Heininger, winning Silver in the singles and Bronze in the pairs alongside Graeme Innes from Cudgen Bowling Club.
Jim was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease when he was five, also known as juvenile macular degeneration, a disease caused by a recessive gene, which affects the part of the retina responsible for sharp, central vision.
If both parents carry the gene there is a one-in-four chance their child will develop the disease.
As a student Jim attended school in Tempe and Kingsgrove while he still had peripheral vision, but never learned Braille.
“I fell through the cracks,” he said.
“When I lost all my vision between age 47 and 50, I lacked the skills acquired by blind children trained in Braille.”
While still partially sighted, Jim was an active member of Lemon Tree Passage Bowling Club and competed in the B2 category of Blind Bowls, winning gold medals in the pairs in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
When he lost his sight completely, he stopped playing bowls for seventeen years.
When Jim and wife Donna moved to Gloucester they met keen bowler Rob Heininger.
Through their friendship, Jim returned to competitive bowling in Category B1 with Rob as his “director”.
At the national titles held for the Australian Blind Bowlers Association (ABBA) in Tweed Heads in 2023, Jim returned to gold medal winning form in the B1 Open Singles.
In this year’s National Titles held in Mandurah, WA, Jim won Gold in the B1 singles and Bronze in the pairs with Peter Rosenberg.
Jim is hoping to qualify for the International Blind Bowlers Association (IBBA) titles, a quadrennial event to be held in New Zealand in 2027.
Bowlers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Scotland, Hong Kong, Israel and Malaysia competed in the 2023 IBBA Competition held in Tweed Heads.
By Marilyn SANDERSON
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