Commonwealth Games 2022: How a Torquay club has provided a third of England's team

Kings Bowling Club's England bowlers (l-r) Sam Tolchard, Jamie Walker, Natalie Chestney, Louis Ridout and Sophie Tolchard

Nestled on the seafront overlooking the beaches and harbour at Torquay is one of the most successful sports clubs that you have probably never heard of.

But despite Kings Bowling Club's low-key profile, it is a powerhouse of the sport in England.

Five of the 16-strong team of bowlers representing the home nation at this summer's Commonwealth Games play for the club.

"For your national and county competitions you have to play with people that are in your club, so that's why you often will end up having a lot of good players at one club - because they want to play with each other," explains Natalie Chestney.

A three-time Commonwealth Games medallist, she won singles gold in Delhi in 2010 before winning silver in the individual event and pairs four years later.

"You do get quite a few good players together, but for some reason Kings has been strong for a number of years now, which is great."

Chestney, who grew up in nearby Newton Abbot, moved to Kings as a youngster alongside fellow England players Sam and Sophie Tolchard.

Chestney won two silver medals in 2014, to add to the women's singles gold she won in Delhi four years earlier

They have been joined by Louis Ridout - who is originally from Somerset - and Jamie Walker, who has moved down from Northampton to be with his Devon-based partner.

"It just so happens that Devon is a place where there are a very high number of high quality players," explains Walker, who will be England's representative in the men's singles and partners Sam Tolchard in the pairs.

"We're all at the stage now where we want to be playing higher-level opposition all of the time and to be playing with people capable of a high standard as well.

"You can't get higher than the guys we play with here. I was used to playing with them at international level, but in the last few years moving down here, I've been getting more used to playing with them than playing against them."

Aiming to improve bowls' visibility

Ridout (left) and Sam Tolchard are part of England's men's fours team

You could easily miss a bowls club nestled between Torquay's Torre Abbey and Grand Hotel if you were looking out to sea.

But if Kings was a football or a rugby union team there would be nothing we would not know about a side that had almost a third of the national team in its ranks.

So does that frustrate the players, all of whom have to juggle day jobs with international-level bowls?

"I wouldn't want some of the pressure the footballers get," says Ridout - who will bowl for England in the men's triples and fours - with a smile.

"But it shows where our sport is at the moment. It is growing, not as fast as we want it to, but I think the television coverage that we'll hopefully get from these games will get more people interested," added the 2018 fours bronze medallist.

"We saw what happened to curling at the Winter Olympics earlier in the year - everyone watches it when it's on and then you don't really watch it again until the next Olympics four years later.

"Bowls is a lot more accessible, there's over 2,000 greens in the country and everyone's less than 35 minutes from a bowling green."

'It's been eat, sleep, bowls, repeat'

Sophie Tolchard (right) was part of the women's triples team that won gold at Glasgow 2014

Between them the Kings quintet have won two gold, two silver and three bronze medals across the past three Commonwealth Games.

So can they add to that haul on the greens at Royal Leamington Spa this summer?

"It's been eat, sleep, bowls, repeat and not much downtime," explains 2014 women's triples gold medallist Sophie Tolchard, who, like her team-mates, has made the near 400-mile round-trip to Leamington Spa every other weekend to prepare.

She will play with Chestney in the women's four and is also part of the women's triples side this time around.

"Being a home Games there's that expectation where we've got that advantage to use the greens, where the other countries haven't had that.

"We've really tried to make the most of taking our knowledge back on all the rinks that we've played on, all the rink markers and creating our database.

"We think we're well prepared, and out of all the three Commonwealth Games I've done this is the one where I've had the most preparation, so we're hoping for some good results."

So come the middle of August perhaps Kings Bowling Club will have even more Commonwealth Games medals to talk about, and perhaps a few more people recognising the talent that plays a stone's throw from the sea.