Seeing double?!

Twin Sisters Kerry and Kelly Packwood combining sport and careers with Dunraven Windows promotional team.

Visitors to Cardiff’s Queens Arcade will have found themselves seeing double at window specialists Dunraven Windows’ stand in the Centre.

Manning the stand are two of Wales’ finest young sportswomen, twins Kerry and Kelly Packwood, aged 23 and respectively current World U25 Indoor Bowls Champion and former Welsh U25 Indoor Champion.

Indeed, this is Kerry’s second world title, the first won in 2006; she was also runner up in 2008 and is keen to make her mark on the sport.  She says, “Winning for the second time was very special as my time as an U25 is running out and I didn’t want to be seen as a one-trick pony with only one title to my name.”  In fact Kerry was also runner up in the Senior World Championships in April this year; narrowly missing out to in the final to a competitor she had beaten in the earlier rounds.

Both Kerry and Kelly are ambitious in their sport, highly competitive yet very supportive of each other.  Indeed the only time Kelly finds herself at a disadvantage is when she has to compete against her sister she says, “I never play well against Kerry!  She always seems to raise her game when she plays me.”

Kerry agrees and goes on, “Kelly always tells me to play as well against the other girls as I do against her.  I don’t feel awkward when I play her and I think I do step up my game when we play each other.”

The girls first started when they were nearly 13.  Neither parent played the sport.  In fact, as Kelly tells it, they had been waiting for their father to collect them one evening from Cwmbran Stadium where they regularly took part in swimming, badminton and table tennis.  As he was running late and the girls had a £1 left they decided to see what they could do while they were waiting and discovered Indoor Bowls.  They have never looked back.

Their ambitions are high, Kelly wants to win the British Isles Senior Title (Indoor) and to represent Wales in the Commonwealth Games in 2014 in outdoor bowls.  Kerry does not play outdoor and is keen to play her sport to the highest level on TV to raise the profile of the sport and encourage more people into it.  And she wants to win the British Isles Senior Title too!  It looks as though there will be plenty more sibling rivalry to come.

Nick Beckett, Queen Arcade Centre Manager said, “We are really happy to welcome Kerry and Kelly to Queens Arcade.  We have a former Olympian regularly on the Malls in the formidable form of Matti Mafi, one of our Security Team.  It is always inspiring to work with such dedicated and driven people at whatever stage of their sporting career.  I will be sure to keep an eye out for Kerry and Kelly in the news and wish them every success in their sporting careers.”