Royden Aperau is a Cook Islands lawn bowler from Matavera, on Rarotonga, and the youngest member of the national squad that went to the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

In a Cook Islands Sports interview before those Games he said he was introduced to the sport at about ten and had been playing for 13 years. A family comment on that post names an early start with “Papa Pita,” and links the sport in the wider family to his grand-aunts, the Checks, who represented New Zealand, and to Scottish ancestry on the Cowan side. No published birth date turned up in the records checked. He was still in the under-26 grade in 2022, when he finished third in the national junior singles and second in the open men’s singles, behind Tere Daniel.

He has been a regular national representative since at least 2023, when Cook Islands News named him, with Tai Tangi Jim, for the World Bowls Indoor Singles in Sydney. At the 2024 World Bowls Champion of Champions at Browns Bay, Auckland, he played nine games, beat Turkey, Sweden, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Namibia and Hong Kong, and lost to Tonga, Malaysia and Wales. That left him ninth, one place behind teammate Tai Jim. In March 2026 he won the men’s national singles again; Cook Islands Bowls described it as a return to the title.

At Glasgow in July 2026 he was one of three men selected, with Jason Lindsay and Epii Poila. Cook Islands News reported that he finished eighth in the men’s singles. Section results cited there and in overseas reports were wins over Botswana (10–4, 7–2), Guernsey (8–4, 9–8) and Namibia, the last on a tie-break after sets of 2–11 and 8–4, and losses to the Isle of Man’s Mark McGreal (2–9, 3–8) and to defending champion Aaron Wilson of Australia, the number-one seed (1–10, 2–10).

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