Wrack nominated for player of year

Northland Bowls' most successful player Wayne Wrack. Photo / File

Considered a phenomenon in lawn bowls folklore, the career of Northland Bowls' most successful player, Wayne Wrack, has been just that; phenomenal.

After 40 years in the game, Wrack recorded his most successful season in 2014-15, picking up five Centre titles - the equivalent to a Gold Star during the one season.

This was a follow-up to what had been a record-breaking 2013-14 season, a feat not seen since the inception of the Centre in 1927.

Wrack received notice through the Maungaturoto Bowling Club, recently, informing him that the Centre felt his credentials made him a worthy candidate for the Bowls New Zealand Male Player of the Year award.

Unfortunately Wrack felt the fact that he didn't win the Bowler of the Year for his Centre might impede his chances of success.

"[I'm a] bit disappointed really, I haven't got a chance at all because I wasn't bowler of the year," Wrack said.

For the record, he played in all Centre and Clubs 12 championship events, making 10 finals and winning nine of them. This bettered Onerahi's John Dunn's outstanding record of eight Centre and Club titles in the 1993 season.

In his favoured event, the singles, he became just the fourth player to complete the "champ of champs" and open singles double.

Other double winners have been J. Vodanovich, Dargaville, 1956; Bill McMillan, Wellsford, 1974 and Neil Campbell, Leigh, 1989, 1992-94.

Wrack now holds the record outright for the most wins in the champion of champion singles and shares the most wins in the open singles with Neil Campbell.

Hugely instrumental in Wrack's run of success over the past couple of seasons has been his playing partner, Maungaturoto's Kevin Robinson, who has been rewarded for his efforts with his first Gold Star.

Thanks to the new lease of life injected by Robinson, Wrack said he'll be back in the 2015-16 season looking for a repeat of his record-breaking run.

However, his form will not see him being enticed to break his 11 year retirement from representing the Centre and playing in National championships.

Wayne raised the standard of bowls in Northland to new levels when he joined bowls in the 1970s as a member of the Kaitaia Club, creating records which have never been bettered.

As reported in the 8 O'Clock on Saturday, March 12, 1983, "His first year in the game wasn't exactly good, it was more like great."