Team Taylor
David Gourlay
The popular 41 year old Glasgow based bowls shop owner returned to the top of the annual WBT Rankings this season to become the World Number 1 player for the sixth time after first topping the list in 1999.
The Scot, who spends the UK winter months at his Sydney home in Australia, has reached six of the last seven ranking event semi-finals to keep his name at the top of the sport.
While at home during the summer months, David regularly plays in various charity and invitation events and is always on hand at the major championships displaying all the latest bowls gear with his traveling shop.
Along with Lincoln's Billy Jackson David retained the WBT World Indoor Pairs Championship at Potters in 2007, joining David Bryant and Tony Allcock as the only back to back winners of the title.
Karen Murphy
Karen began bowling in 1985 at the age of 11, and has never looked back. From her first title success in the Gerringong Junior pairs in 1985 to achieving one of her lifetime's ambitions when she won Commonwealth pairs gold in front of her home fans at the Darebin Sports Centre in Melbourne, along with her Taylor sponsored partner Lynsey Armitage.
The 33 year old from Shellcove in New South Wales, lost out in the Australian indoor singles with the last bowl of her match to Judy Nardella in 2006, but made up for that disappointment when she won the title at Tweedheads this season against rising star Kelsey Cottrell, who is also on the Taylor Team.
Karen made her international debut in 1997 and has since been a regular member of the Australian team, competing in three Commonwealth Games, five Asia Pacific events and two world championships.
Kelvin Kerkow
Kelvin, who will be 39 this year, has already attained more since he began competitive bowling at the age of 19 than some people do in a lifetime. After overcoming the ravages of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare disorder that affects the body's nervous system, causing paralysis in the muscles of the legs, arms and other parts of the body when he was barely 11 years old, Kelvin realised his childhood ambition on home soil at Melbourne in 2004 when he won the Commonwealth singles gold medal against Welshman Robert Weale.
Having reached the heights as part of the Australian elite squad at national and international level, Kelvin withdrew from the team in 2006 to concentrate on WBT events, and was rewarded with a title victory in the Scottish International Open against David Gourlay. He is currently ninth on the Ranking List.
He retained the Australian indoor singles title at Tweedheads, and returns to Warilla in 2008 to defend the world cup title he won last year when he beat another Taylor sponsored player – Ireland's Jeremy Henry, 9-5, 8-4 in the final.
Lynsey Armitage
A member of the successful Helensvale club in Queensland, Lynsey (shown left here) came to Taylor Bowls as an aspiring 17 year old, thanks to her mother Teresa, who recognised her daughter's immense talent and sought out sponsorship for her. Lynsey had just won her first major silverware success in the Australian Junior Singles title in 2000 which she secured with her first set of Taylor Vector bowls.
The rest you can say is history, with the 25 year old, who has been a member of the Australian Elite squad since 2003, already in possession of Commonwealth, Asian Pacific, international and state titles as well as back to back world junior singles title that she won in Hong Kong in 2005 and 06.
Andy Thomson
Andy rolled back the years with a vintage display in Perth last year at the Great British Mobility Scottish International Open to take the title in straight sets against Suffolk's Mark Royal. Andy, at 52 years old, is the oldest man on the WB ranking list and Mark, at 32, is the youngest!
The London based Anglo Scot, born in St Andrews, played and represented Scotland in his formative years before heading south to play under the flag of St George where he has just overtaken David Bryant's record of playing for his adopted country for 27 consecutive years.
Andy, Ireland's Jonathan Ross and Scotland's Darren Burnett are the only players to hold successive British Isles singles titles. Andy has the added credit of joining David Bryant, Tony Allcock and Alex Marshall as the only back to back winners of the World Indoor Singles title.
Andy is an integral part of the Taylor Bowls sales team and is a bowls commentator for the BBC.
Jeremy Henry
Jeremy, from Ballymoney in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland regained the Irish Indoor Singles title for the fifth time this season and will represent his country in the British Isles Championships at the Dewar's Centre in Perth. The Irishman has made it to the final on three occasions, winning in 1994, but losing out in 2004 and 2005.
He claimed the world outdoor singles title in Johannesburg in 2000 against Australian Steve Glasson and two years later was pipped for Commonwealth singles gold in Manchester by South Africa's Bobby Donnelly.
Jeremy is equally adept at the indoor and outdoor game, and won the world indoor pairs with Ian McClure in 2004. After competing in the quadrennial world championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, Jeremy will return to Tarren Point in Sydney in 2008 for his second successive term with the club in their Premier League campaign.
Amy Monkhouse
Grimsby PE teacher Amy continues to dominate the English bowling scene and is one of the brightest talents on the bowls stage, with World, Commonwealth and a variety of national titles already under her belt.
At just 24 years of age, Amy skipped her English club mates to the World Fours title on her home greens at Royal Leamington Spa in 2004, which helped them secure the Taylor Bowls Trophy for the best performed team at the World Championships and in 2002 claimed pairs bronze at the Manchester Commonwealth Games.
Her CV is overflowing with honours gleaned from both the indoor and outdoor circuit, which includes four Champion of Champions singles titles, the world Mixed Pairs title in 2004 in partnership with Alex Marshall and this has led to her being named as the Women's UK Bowler of the year three times.
Darren Burnett
After losing in the inaugural World Champion of Champions final at Warilla in 2003 to Douw Calitz, Darren, a Tayside police officer, didn't have to wait long before getting his hands on the Taylor Quaich, when he won the title in Christchurch in 2006, playing with shocking pink bowls, against Israel's Jeff Rabkin. The win put him at the top of the WB ranking list.
He is a prolific winner of titles both indoors and out, having won both the junior and principal Scottish indoor singles three times each, and has also achieved the same honours in the principal outdoor singles. In his earlier years Darren claimed the world under 25 title on four successive occasions between 1998 and 2001.
Kelsey Cottrell
One of bowling's hottest properties is Aussie teen sensation Kelsey who only burst onto the international bowling scene two years ago when she became the youngest player, at just 15, to represent Australia in the Asia Pacific Championship. From there she has carved her way to the top where she now sits in pole position on Bowls Australia's national singles rankings list.
The New Zealand born seventeen year old student, who resides on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, took the sport by storm and has been the standout singles player on Bowls Australia's grand prix circuit this season, winning two of the four major events played and finishing runner-up in another.
She will go into the record books as the youngest bowler ever to play in the quadrennial world championships lining up for Australia in the singles role and also the triples at Christchurch, New Zealand.
Graeme Wilson & Wayne Ditchfield
A four times winner of the Yorkshire Merit, Graeme continues to dominate the crown green scene, this year adding a further nine titles to his already hefty list of achievements.
However the highly respected 35 year old from the Budenburgs club in Greater Manchester and Lower Hopton Working Men's Club in Yorkshire, will be on the look-out for young pretender Wayne Ditchfield.
The seventeen year old from the North Lancs.& Fylde district, is in the record books as the first ever winner of three successive Junior Waterloo crowns and has recorded back to back All England British Crown Green Junior singles titles. This year he added the BCGBA Junior Merit beating Jamie Thompson from North Midlands 21-15 in the final.