Australia’s Dawn Hayman and Paul Foster MBE, Scotland, continue their reign at the top of the World Bowls Series Ranking Lists.
The newly published list features the results from the New Zealand National Fours, the New Zealand Open Mixed Pairs and the World Bowls Tour’s final event of the 2025/26 season – the UK Open in Cambridge Chesterton Indoor Bowls Club.
The only significant change in the latest update comes in the men’s list with New Zealand’s Aiden Takarua moving up six places from ninth to third following his success winning the gold ranked New Zealand mixed pairs with Rebecca Barker at the event staged at Bay of Plenty.
Scotland’s Paul Foster MBE maintains his No 1 spot in the men’s list with 774 points. He’s just eight points in front of second placed Australia’s Corey Wedlock. Third is the aforementioned Takarua, while fourth and fifth are Ross Owen from Wales and Foster’s Scottish compatriot Jason Banks.
Sixth is Ireland’s Gary Kelly who make up the top five, while making up the remaining Top 10 are Australia’s Jack McShane, England’s Dominic McVittie, former No 1 Malaysia’s Izzat Shameer Dzukelpe and Scotland’s Stewart Anderson, also a former No 1, who following his runner-up performance in the World Bowls Tour’s UK Open – a gold ranked competition – comes back in to 10th place.
There’s now 161 points between the No 1 and No 10 placed players.
In the women’s ranking list, there’s no change in the first 10 players – Hayman leads the pack with 860 points, 59 points ahead of England’s Emily Kernick who is second. Tenth is inaugural No 1 Kelsey Cottell who has 542 points.
Next month’s Ranking List update will feature results from the Americas Region World Championships Qualifier in California, the PBA South Africa WBT Qualifier, the Asian Lawn Bowls Championships and the US$75,000 Victorian Open which has just been completed.
ABOUT THE WBS RANKINGS
The World Bowls Series, launched in 2024, is the official year-long calendar of sanctioned events connecting to the official world rankings. It is a joint venture between World Bowls and Tier 5 Ventures. The sanctioned events occur across the globe and will feature a mixture of existing and new events.
The 2026 calendar has a record 38 sanctioned events. Each WBS event belonged to a different tier having different ranking points based on the size, location, and stature it presents for the sport.
The purpose of WBS is to build the profile and brand of bowls, showcase the best players in the game and increase their earnings potential, accelerate the legitimacy of the sport on the global stage and launch world rankings that will help create clarity and interest in the sport of bowls.
There have so far been four men’s No 1 ranked players – Aron Sherriff (Australia), Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple (Malaysia), Stewart Anderson and Jason Banks for Scotland, while having enjoyed kudos as women’s No 1’s are Kelsey Cottrell (Australia), Kelly McKerihen (Canada), Nor Farah Ain Abdullah (Malaysia), Emily Kernick (England), Dawn Hayman (Australia) and Selina Goddard (New Zealand).
See World Bowls Series website www.worldbowlsseries.com for more information.
For more information regarding the World Bowls Series, contact: Neil Dalrymple, CEO, World Bowls, ceo@worldbowls.com