Commonwealth Games 2026 Kicks Off in Glasgow with Indoor Bowls

That wasn't quite the case as the sport kicked off the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The city of Glasgow was still waking up as athletes, officials and a handful of fans filed into the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) for a 9:30am start to Commonwealth competition on Thursday.

Not least of which because the event isn't on lawn of any sort; it's being played on carpeted greens indoors at the SEC Centre.

It serves as a reminder of organisers' decision to hold as many events in existing halls and venues, and gives the in-house DJ prime acoustics as he tries to pump up a crowd described as "small but mighty" by the MC team.

Already the only sport running on every day of the Games, organisers added an extra session on Day Zero before the opening ceremony due to "unprecedented demand" for the sport at a distinctly Scottish Games.

But making that widely known to punters may have fallen by the wayside for an organising committee feeling the pinch as their rapid 22-month planning period suddenly reached its end.

Along with bowls, the SEC will host more than half – boxing, judo, 3x3 basketball, netball, weightlifting and para powerlifting – of the cut-down list of sports in Glasgow.

Everything from Naughty By Nature to drum and pipes renditions of ABBA and Tina Turner echoed through Hall 3 as the countdown began and pyrotechnics welcomed the athletes to the rinks, with Australia's 2018 gold medallist Kelsey Cottrell the consensus "one to watch" as eight women's pairs rollers and four in the men's singles stepped onto the field of play.

But the first competitive moments of Glasgow 2026 arrived with a startling lack of fanfare, at least for the uninitiated.

The in-arena announcer made sure to point out their warm-up rolls had no bearing on the scores, but the only marker that Jackaroos Cottrell and Dawn Hayman were officially kicking us off came when the scoreboard clicked on at the far end of the Siti Zalina Ahmad Rink.

Cottrell and Hayman got it ticking over straight away with a 4-0 lead after the first end of the first set against Gertrude Siame and Foster Banda.

It was the sort of lead you see sometimes at these sorts of meets, where one team is simply outclassed.

That was certainly happening in the concurrent men's singles, where 39-year-old former world champion Shannon McIlroy was kicking the tar out of 17-year-old Tongan Liam Hill, and Northern Ireland's Gary Kelly was rolling Frederrick Tafatu of Niue.

The biggest cheers of the morning came from Botswana's crew whenever bucket-hatted Diza Mphotho won an end, a raucous reaction that cracked through the polite hum and mild applause accompanying some of the other victories.

Meanwhile, the Zambian pair fought back before Cottrell got the Aussie team rocking on the sidelines with a clutch final roll to secure the 6-4 win in the first set.

"Just breathe through the nerves a little bit when you feel that adrenaline pumping on the mat," Cottrell said.

"Take that extra second; time is precious [with a 30-second shot clock], but take that extra second and breathe through it."

The heavily favoured Aussies looked more like themselves in the second set as they romped to a 2-0 win against a team that had never played on carpet before.

Even as they were getting walloped 14-0 in the second set, Zambian skip Banda was vocally gassing up her partner – "Come on Gertrude, you are trying my darling" – and apologising for her own performances.

It was a welcome distraction for the Australians as they tried to keep their own adrenaline in check.

"They're always very chatty," Cottrell said.

"It's just that fine line, being able to walk away and focus when we need to, but also it's kind of good to engage in it because it keeps us cool, calm and collected as well. Really lovely girls."

Hayman and Cottrell will walk in the opening ceremony at the Hydro from 5am on Friday (AEST), but they have already truly opened the 2026 Commonwealth Games.