Should she win a medal of any colour at this year’ s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, one of the first people lawn bowls player Jacqui“ Jax” van Rensburg will probably give thanks to is her grandfather.
That’ s because it was he who made sure that the now multi-capped national bowler did not slip through the sporting cracks.
“ My dad was in the mining business and we’ d just moved back from a two-year spell in India and moved in with my grandparents in Humansdorp, Eastern Cape,” says Van Rensburg, now 37.
“ My brother( who also plays now) and I were adamant we’ d never play bowls, although my mom and uncle played a bit( bowling runs in her family; her grandmother won the Northern Free State singles in her day).
“ My grandad, Eric Andrews, was greenkeeper, president, you-name-it at the local club and one day a woman wanted to do a coaching course and needed someone to coach.
“ He instructed me to be that person and when the president does that, you kind of listen,” she laughs.
She soon discovered that she“ wasn’ t too shabby” and was playing bowls for Eastern Province within a year.
When she was 16, van Rensburg moved to Cape Town where she played for a few local clubs and improved even more, being selected for( and winning) the Junior SA Masters Singles title.
But it wasn’ t long before she was again on the move, this time up north to Johannesburg.
In 2019, she received her national colours and was selected for the Atlantic Rim Championships in Wales where she played the fours and trips format, winning silver and bronze and grabbing gold in the overall competition.
The world was soon the oyster for a woman who loves travelling.“ Wales was an amazing experience and I then played a couple of U25 games in China, then on to Hong Kong and also a Multi-Nations tournament in Australia – that was incredible, the greens in Australia are the most perfect greens you can play on.”
She now plays out of Morningside, Johannesburg.“ I’ ve found my home there.
There’ s lots of youth as well as big names like Gerry Baker, Donald Piketh and Jason Evans at the club.”
The mentoring aspect of her personality makes perfect sense. By day, she’ s a teacher( to 3-6-year-old kids) at a Montessori school and is also a qualified life coach.
Looking ahead to Glasgow and the big difference this time around compared to the Games hosted by the same city in 2014, is that the picturesque Kelvingrove venue has been ditched for a synthetic carpet at the Scottish Event Campus indoor venue.
This explains why much of the SA team’ s preparations have taken place at the Midstream indoor venue at Midrand, Africa’ s only indoor venue.
Van Rensburg elaborates further on the synthetic surface.“ Generally, synthetic means that your more skilled person is going to come out on top … if you’ re not 100 per cent focused your shots are going to be predominantly inconsistent. On the carpet it bends a lot more than your average speed greens and one’ s line is so crucial to being consistent.
“ SA and African countries are at a huge disadvantage because other countries have so many more synthetic carpets and also the funding to be able to arrive at the venue days / weeks prior in order to get the“ feel” of the surfaces.”
Unlike at previous Games, limited funding means there are only women’ s and men’ s singles and pairs categories at Glasgow 2026.“ I love all formats but feel that singles tests me the most( mentally as well). Our toughest opponents are always Australia and New Zealand and obviously Scotland this year( they play six to eight months a season on synthetic carpets).
In terms of her build-up to the Games, Van Rensburg tries to get to the green three times a week.“ I spend a few hours a week on the green and two hours on the carpet and then Saturdays and Sunday are normally competitions.”
The short-listed players for Glasgow spent a weekend at Midstream in late June to tweak their training efforts.
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“ When we meet at our training camps there is more focus put on developing skills by doing a range of exercises to strengthen our various shots( draw and attacking shots). The aim is to achieve a high consistency level. We do also play various games( at this camp this is the main focus).
“ As far as actual exercising; that is left to us in our personal capacity to do. I prefer doing pilates.”
Travelling is one of Van Rensburg’ s passions and apart from her bowls missions, she’ s also been to Phuket( Thailand), Singapore, Ireland and New Zealand on holiday but India remains her favourite.“ It’ s really my favourite. I loved the diversity and the culture and how they celebrate with so much colour.”
Talking of colour, her thoughts drift back to Glasgow.
“ I’ ve never been to a major multi-code event before. But I’ ve watched some opening ceremonies on TV and get goosebumps just at the thought of being a part of that.
“ I’ m also looking forward to just being among the different sporting codes … and hopefully winning a shiny gold medal too!”
Should that golden dream come true, there’ ll be a very proud Eric Andrews looking down from above, knowing that he played a huge part in Van Rensburg’ s sporting life.
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