A collection of the world's best bowlers will converge on Launceston this weekend for the Bill Springer Invitational Mad Dog singles tournament.
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First held in 2014, the singles tournament will start off the new year at East Launceston Bowls Club with Tasmania's best mixing it with eight international representatives.
"It started off as a fairly small event but it then it grew in size to be a national ranking event on the Bowls Australia calendar and a lot of the international and mainland players have supported the event from the beginning," tournament organiser Sam Springer said.
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
The international fleet will be led by Canadian Commonwealth Games silver medallist Ryan Bester and features Scottish duo Kevin Anderson and Ryan Burnett, New Zealand's Katelyn Inch, Ireland's Gary Kelly and top Australian duo Cassandra Millerick and Ben Twist.
They will have their work cut out for them as the likes of Josh Appleyard and Mark Strochnetter aim to leave them without the spoils.
Usually in September, the event will revert to its usual spot in the future but Springer hasn't ruled out running two installments in 2021.
"I said let's try and hold it in January and there was a little bit of a question mark as to how it might go being a different time of the year and whether people were away," he said.
"But the mainland players - the internationals - were supportive of it and I said well let's do it because it's better to have loved and lost to have never loved at all."
The event's final gets underway at 2.30pm on Sunday.