Amy hoping to crush Aussies

THE words 'Australian Open' have a ring to them that inspires every follower of sport – and the prospect of a Test match between England and Australia is surely guaranteed to stir the blood.

In this case, however, we are not talking about tennis or golf – neither will this week's eagerly-awaited Test Down Under involve pads, stumps and wickets.

But, just because the sport happens to be lawn bowls, there is no reduction in intensity levels for participants or spectators.

Grimsby's bowling superstar, Amy Monkhouse, has been in Victoria for just over a week now, competing in the Australian Open, and, although she did well to bag a bronze medal in the women's pairs, it was her male team-mates who grabbed most of the headlines.

Norfolk's self-employed pest controller, Mervyn King, and Stuart Airey, a contracts manager from Cumbria, socked it to the Aussies, winning the men's Open pairs title, and Graham Shadwell, a van driver from Wiltshire was unlucky to lose in the final of the men's singles.

Monkhouse, a school teacher at Tollbar Business and Enterprise College, said: "It's difficult, balancing your sport with your career, but my headteacher and colleagues are very supportive – and, as a PE teacher, I suppose competing at world level does mean something when it comes my credibility," Monkhouse said.

"The competition in the Australian Open was brilliant, if exhausting," she added.

"On the day Sian (Gordon) and I qualified for the main event, we had to play five matches.

"That meant we left our accommodation at 6.15am, and didn't get back until after midnight, and we were on the green for well over eight hours.

"I believe I could and should have gone further in both the singles and pairs," she added. "I made a tactical error in the singles, giving the mat away at the start of the second set. It's all been a real learning curve and I just hope I have learnt from it."

Attention is now focused on the two-day Test match, which gets underway this morning, and which features the teams, for the first time, in the roles that they are expected to occupy in India for the Commonwealth Games.

Monkhouse is delighted to have been given the coveted singles berth, but the allocation of positions is provisional, so her performance this afternoon against 19-year-old sensation Kelsey Cottrell will be crucial.

Melmore and Falkner line-up in the pairs, while Sandy Hazell has been giving the task of steering teenager Jamie-Lea Winch and 22-year-old Sian Gordon in the triples.

"The Aussies have practised in Moama three times already," said Monkhouse.

"We were given our first chance to play on a similar surface on Friday, before heading for the twin-town of Moama/Echuca on Sunday.

"We hope to drop on to it quite quickly, but, in any case, it really is the best preparation for New Delhi, because we have the double challenge – adjusting to new surfaces, and facing world-class opposition."

Follow Amy's progress in tomorrow's Telegraph.