Robert Paxton is an English international outdoor and indoor bowls player. He reached a career high ranking of world number 25 in June 2025 although he has previously carried a ranking of number 2 on the

World Bowls Tour The World Bowls Tour is an organisation that promotes indoor bowls and organises competitions (primarily in the United Kingdom), including the World Indoor Bowls Championships. History In 1990, the sport was experiencing period of fragmenta ...

Bowls career

Robert is from

Crediton Crediton is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. It stands on the A377 road, A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, Devon, Tiverton, north w ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

and plays out of the Exonia club indoors and out of Crediton BC. and won the 2011 Scottish International Open. In 2013, he won two gold medals at the

European Bowls Championships The European Bowls Championship formerly the European Bowls Team Championships is a biennial continental lawn bowls tournament for European nations. From its inauguration in 1997 until September 2021, the tournament was organised by the Europea ...

in Spain. In 2015 Paxton partnered

Simon Skelton Simon Skelton is an English international lawn and indoor bowler. Bowls career Simon bowls for the Nottingham indoor club and Stute outdoor bowls club. During the 2002 Commonwealth Games he was part of the fours that won the gold medal with Joh ...

when they won the 2015 World Indoor Bowls Championship Pairs title and the 2015 world mixed pairs title with

Marion Purcell Marion Purcell is a Welsh international lawn and indoor bowler. Bowls career In 2015, she won the mixed pairs title at the 2015 World Indoor Bowls Championship with Robert Paxton. She won a second title partnering Nick Brett in the mixed pairs ...

and he held a career high world indoor ranking of 2 in 2015. The following year he was runner up in the singles in the 2016 World Indoor Bowls Championship, beaten in the final by Nick Brett. In December 2016, he was part of the triples team with Andy Knapper and Jamie Walker who won the gold medal at the

2016 World Outdoor Bowls Championship The 2016 World Outdoor Bowls Championship was held at the Burnside Bowling Club in Avonhead, Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban a ...

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. In 2018, he reached the World Indoor Bowls Championship open singles final losing out to

Mark Dawes Mark Dawes (born 1983) is an English international lawn and indoor bowler and a four times world indoor champion. Bowls career He won the Men's National Junior title in 2005 at the National Championships. By 2014, he had reached a career high ...

in a hard fought final. Dawes had been the player of the tournament and Paxton did well to take the final to a tie break. He was also selected as part of the English team for the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

on the Gold Coast in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

where he won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

in the

Singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

. In 2019, he won the mixed pairs gold with

Ellen Falkner Ellen Marie Falkner (née Alexander; born 12 June 1979) is an English international lawn and indoor bowler from Cambridge, England. Falkner was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services ...

at the

2019 World Indoor Bowls Championship The 2019 Just World Indoor Bowls Championship was held at Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth, England, from 10–27 January 2019. The event is organised by the World Bowls Tour. Stewart Anderson won his second open singles ...

. The following year he finally won the World indoor title after reaching his third final at the

2020 World Indoor Bowls Championship The 2020 Just World Indoor Bowls Championship was held at Potters Resort, Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth, England, from 9–26 January 2020. The event was organised by the World Bowls Tour and televised by the BBC. In th ...

and was also selected for the 2020 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paxton, Robert English male bowls players 1978 births Living people Bowls World Champions Indoor Bowls World Champions Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Bowls players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Bowls European Champions Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in lawn bowls