A Welsh teenager will make history this week at the Potters Holidays World Indoor Singles Championship in Norfolk when 17-year-old Jarred Breen becomes the youngest player to compete in the premier World Bowls Tour event.

A Welsh teenager will make history this week at the Potters Holidays World Indoor Singles Championship in Norfolk when 17-year-old Jarred Breen becomes the youngest player to compete in the premier World Bowls Tour event.

The World Singles Championship is the flagship event of a three-week festival of world-class bowls in its 12th year at Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton on Sea, from January 40 to 24 - which also includes the World Indoor Pairs Championship, the Ladies World Matchplay Championship and the Mixed Pairs World Matchplay Championship.

With extended live coverage on BBC TV and staged on the WBT's unique and world-renowned portable rink, the world championships will feature the top 24 bowlers in the world, joined by qualifiers from the UK, Australia, South Africa, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel and New Zealand.

Qualifier Breen, from Tonyrefail in Mid Glamorgan, will face Englishman Robert Chisholm in the opening match of the singles championship tomorrow, Tuesday, morning.

Chisholm is also no stranger to history-making achievements in the sport after becoming the first qualifier to win the Welsh International Open in Swansea last year - a feat which propelled the 24-year-old from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to a world ranking of 19 for this season.

But Breen will be rubbing shoulders with considerably older fellow competitors - including distinguished Scot Willie Wood, the 71-year-old from East Lothian who has earned an MBE for his contribution to the sport. Wood made his debut in the 1982 championship, was runner-up in 1989, and is returning to the event after an 11-year gap following victory in the Scottish qualifying event!

If Breen and Wood should meet at Potters, it would be in the final - a mouth-watering prospect!

England's defending champion Billy Jackson is seeded to retain the trophy - but the 39-year-old from Lincoln will face stiff opposition from a strong 2010 World Singles Championship field which includes six former world champions, including legendary Scot Alex Marshall, the world number one and record five times winner of the title; local hero Mervyn King, the 2006 champion from Norfolk; England's eighth seed Andy Thomson, champion in 1994 and 1995; and in-form Scot Paul Foster, winner of the crown three times and currently heading next season's provisional world rankings.

Monday schedule:

World Pairs Championship, play-offs:

10.00am

[Q] Itzek Sher & Israel Meushar (ISR)

V [Q] Ian McClure & Gary McCloy (IRE)

2.00pm

[Q] Hirendra Bhartu & Fred Fong (CAN)

V Grant Summers & Frank Souza (USA)

World Pairs Championship, 1st round:

[4] Greg Harlow & Nick Brett (ENG)

V [Q] Brett Wilkie & Mark Casey (AUS)

7.30pm

[8] Richard Morgan (WAL) & Les Gillett (ENG)

V [Q] Phil Bennett & Geoff Wilson (NZL)

Tuesday schedule:

9.30am

World Pairs Championship, play-offs:

[Q] Chris Chau & Kenny So (HKG)

V Sher & Meushar (ISR) or McClure & McCloy (IRE)

World Singles Championship, 1st round

Robert Chisholm (ENG) v [Q] Jarred Breen (WAL)

2.00pm

[Q] Stuart Airey (ENG) v Nick Brett (ENG)

World Pairs Championship, 1st round:

[1] Mervyn King (ENG) & Kelvin Kerkow (AUS)

V [Q] Andrew Barker & Michael Stepney (SCO)

7.30pm

[5] Billy Jackson (ENG) & David Gourlay (AUS)

V [Q] John Price & David Axon (WAL)