The 28th edition of the tournament, which starts next Friday, will again feature 32 world-class players over four days of competition. All are drawn to play in four sections of eight, with the spotlight arguably on the Commonwealth champion.
At just 26, Wilson, who won the event last year in just his second attempt, has an impressive bowling resume.
Introduced to the game at the age of 11, he burst on to the Australian national scene six years later, with back-to-back championship victories in the Victorian under-18 singles, and bagged the first of a long list of national titles in singles, pairs and fours.
He broke on to the world stage in 2016, when he gained national selection, and justified his Jackaroo status by winning the world junior championship and playing a key role in assisting the Australian men’s four to a silver medal. At World Bowls in 2016, he won the gold medal in the men’s pairs with Brett Wilkie, and gained a silver in the fours.
Last year Wilson, the high performance coach of the Cambramatta Club in Sydney, became the fourth Australian to win the North East Valley title.
After finishing runner-up to Jackaroo team-mate Brett Wilkie in 2017, Wilson accounted for Canadian international Ryan Bester 25-15 in the final.
The win last year followed victory in the prestigious Everest of Bowls Tournament in Western Australia a week earlier in which won Wilson $A50,000.
Waiting to lower Wilson’s colours next week are players such as Bester (33), the bowls co-ordinator at the Broadbeach Club, which played host to the recent Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Bester finished runner-up to Wilson at the Games to add to the silver medal he won four years earlier in Glasgow.
The New Zealand representation is headed by internationals such as Gary Lawson, Mike Nagy, Mike Kernaghan, Tony Grantham and Shaun Scott. Up-and-coming Sheldon Bagrie-Howley (23) and Seamus Curtin (17) could also feature in the final wash.
The two proved worthy of their growing reputations of being Blackjacks in waiting after progressing through to meet in the final of the Burnside under-26 singles tournament last weekend in Christchurch. Curtin managed to get on top of a persistent Bagrie-Howley in the final ends to win 21-17.
Competition starts at the North East Valley Bowling Club greens on Friday afterenoon.
