Jason Banks rallied from a set down to beat Wales’ Ross Owen in a one-end tie-break on Sunday, keeping his Commonwealth Games medal bid alive on home soil. The Inverurie bowler now faces England’s Sam Tolchard in a winner-takes-all men’s singles match at Glasgow’s SEC Centre on Monday morning.
That decider exists only because of a result Banks had nothing to do with. Fiji’s Rajnesh Prasad had been controlling the section until a shock defeat to Pakistan’s Mohammed Ayub Qureshi, a 67-year-old Glasgow restaurant owner playing his third Commonwealth Games, dropped him below both Banks and Tolchard on points difference.
Banks Digs Out of a Set Down to Beat Owen
Banks opened his Glasgow 2026 campaign last Thursday as the first Scottish athlete in action at the Games, beating Jamaica’s Robert Simpson 2-0 in the tournament’s quick-fire format. Sunday’s assignment against Owen was tougher.
Owen took the first set 11-4, catching the head better than Banks all the way through it. Banks adjusted his line and hit back with a 12-1 second set to force a tie-break, then held his nerve to shade the extra end.
It was just a crazy match. In the first set, Ross was catching it so much better than me. I just thought I had to change the length. I managed to get the last two ends of the first set which gave me a bit of confidence.
Banks told the Daily Record he then found his groove in the second set before the tie-break turned into what he called anybody’s game. “Once I was lying the shot, there was nothing I could do,” he said. “I just had to hope, keep my composure and do everything I could.”
What Does Points Difference Decide?
Commonwealth Games bowls singles opens with round-robin sections before a knockout draw. Only the section winner advances, so results are ranked first on match wins and then on points difference, the gap between shots scored and shots conceded. A single upset can reorder who controls the group without that bowler even taking the rink against the leader.
That is exactly what happened here. Prasad had been on top of the section, but his points difference collapsed after the Qureshi result, pulling him below both Banks and Tolchard. With three names bunched together and only one route through, Monday’s match becomes a straight shootout.
| Bowler | Nation | Status Entering Monday |
|---|---|---|
| Jason Banks | Scotland | Beat Owen in a one-end tie-break Sunday; level with Tolchard on points difference |
| Sam Tolchard | England | Level with Banks on points difference; beat him in a recent Tri-Nations match |
| Rajnesh Prasad | Fiji | Dropped below Banks and Tolchard after a shock loss to Qureshi |
| Ross Owen | Wales | Medal hopes all but ended by the tie-break loss to Banks |
| Mohammed Ayub Qureshi | Pakistan | Beat Prasad to reshuffle the section; playing his third Commonwealth Games at 67 |
Win Monday and Banks tops the section outright. Lose, and the points-difference math that Qureshi rewrote could just as easily work against him.
The Curry House Owner Who Reshuffled the Draw
Qureshi is not chasing his own medal in this section. He is a 67-year-old Pakistan international who runs the Alishan Tandoori, a curry restaurant on Battlefield Road in Glasgow, and this is already his third Commonwealth Games after appearances at the 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast editions. Games organisers themselves framed him as an adopted son basking in support from the Scots crowd, a local fixture as much as a visiting competitor.
None of that made his win over Prasad any less consequential. By beating the section’s front-runner, Qureshi did what neither Banks nor Tolchard had managed on the rink themselves: he turned Monday’s match into the only one that matters. A bowler with no realistic path to his own medal ended up deciding who still has one.
Owen and Prasad Are Left Counting the Cost
Bowls sections are unforgiving. Two results, in two separate matches, quietly closed the door on two campaigns.
Owen’s loss to Banks was described by organisers as all but ending the Welshman’s medal hopes, a brutal outcome after he had led 11-4 through one set. Prasad fares little better. His points-difference cushion is gone, and unless Monday’s result breaks unusually in his favour, his own section is already out of his hands.
Neither man plays again this week to fix it. Their tournaments effectively turned on matches other people were playing.
Tolchard Already Holds the Head-to-Head Edge
Tolchard and Banks know each other well. They met a few weeks ago in a Tri-Nations match, and Tolchard won that meeting. Asked about facing him again with so much more on the line, Banks kept it simple. “I just have to take it as it comes. It is another tough game and I will do my best,” he said.
Tolchard arrives with far more Commonwealth pedigree. Glasgow 2026 is his fifth Games for England, and his medal cabinet already runs deep, though notably light on singles:
- Glasgow 2014 – bronze, men’s pairs
- Gold Coast 2018 – bronze, men’s fours
- Birmingham 2022 – silver, men’s pairs with Jamie Walker, and bronze, men’s fours
Every one of those medals came in pairs or fours. Singles, the discipline he now plays in Glasgow, is the one podium finish that has eluded him across four Commonwealth Games. That gives Monday’s match stakes on both sides of the rink.
Home Support Is the Edge Banks Leans On
Since his Thursday debut, Banks has bowled in front of a SEC Centre crowd that has stayed loud through every set. He is 30 years old and, by his own account, the extra noise has mattered on the tight ends.
“It is a huge help having the home crowd behind your back,” he said. “They spur you on that wee bit extra. It is great.” Tolchard, playing in his fifth Commonwealth Games away from an English crowd of comparable size, will not have the same lift on Monday.
Monday’s Winner Gets No Time to Rest
The men’s singles competition runs at the SEC Centre from 23 to 28 July, with twenty-six nations split into round-robin sections before a knockout draw. Whoever tops Monday’s section moves straight into the last rounds, which reach their semi-finals the same day, before both the bronze and gold medal matches are settled on Tuesday, the competition’s final day.
There is no gap to regroup in. A Monday morning win sends the winner back onto the rink within hours, against opposition still to be determined.
- What we know: Banks and Tolchard are level on points difference above Prasad, Qureshi’s win over Prasad created the winner-takes-all scenario, and the section winner advances directly into knockout play that finishes Tuesday.
- What’s unconfirmed: the exact kickoff time for Monday’s match, who the section winner draws in the knockout rounds, and whether Prasad retains any mathematical route back into contention.
Banks will walk onto the rink Monday morning knowing the shot he needs. He just will not know, until he is out there, whether the crowd that got him through Owen can get him past Tolchard too.
