KEY POINTS:
Peter Belliss, one of New Zealand bowls' greatest legends, is hoping for improved fortunes when he competes for the first time in eight years at the national championships in Auckland on Friday.
The last championships the three-time former world champion contested were in 2001, also in Auckland and, while he showed good form, he had the misfortune to be ousted in all three of the disciplines in the semifinals.
Not that Belliss has entirely unhappy memories of tournaments in Auckland. At Onehunga, as long ago as 1981, he had his first major success and the first of his five national titles when he won the singles. And, of course, he won his world pairs title at Henderson with Rowan Brassey in 1988.
Australian-based Belliss is now 57 and has been on the national selection outer for a number of years even if some believe that, along with Brassey, his disappearance from New Zealand squads has been premature.
He says his return to the nationals after such a long break is not to try to prove any point, but simply reflects the fact he has had to use up the considerable holiday leave he has built up helping run the powerful Cabramatta club in Sydney.
"I'm looking forward to it," he says. "But anything I achieve will be a bonus."
Belliss is in a strong four, which includes the 1999 singles champion Justin Goodwin, from Auckland and two highly experienced and much respected Waikato bowlers Kevin Robinson and Steve Posa, who won the pairs in 2005.
"On paper we look a reasonable side," he says. "But there are a number of others who look more than useful, too. As is often the case in bowls, it'll come down to luck."
In the pairs he will be with Canterbury's Shane Sincock, a virtual stranger. "I know he has played a lot with Gary Lawson, did well at the recent New Zealand Open and everyone speaks highly of him."
Belliss rates his chances in the singles a little less hopefully even though that was where he gained his early fame. "I haven't played singles for three years so it'll be a shock to the system," he says.
He was also in the same qualifying section as Sincock and another illustrious veteran, Aucklander Nick Grgicevich. The singles will be especially competitive, though last year's champion Russell Meyer is absent, being now based in Britain. But no fewer than nine former title-holders have entered, topped by Belliss, Lawson (who'll play the pairs with Goodwin) Ali Forsyth, plus the power-driving Canadian Ryan Bester.
Brassey, the biggest name never to have won the singles, will play only the pairs, partnering Bester.
Besides the Belliss combination, the top fours line-ups appear to be those of Bester, who skips the same combination which won in Christchurch last year, Richard Girvan who has his old Okahu Bay club-mate Danny O'Connor at three, and that of young Shannon McIlroy.
The country's best women's bowlers, Val Smith and Jo Edwards, are missing the championships but several top-liners remain in Auckland's Jo Babich, who was the champion skip in fours and pairs last year, and former internationals Sharon Sims and the Khan sisters, Jan and Marina.
The championships, with Pakuranga the headquarters, start on Friday with women's singles and men's pairs qualifying. The singles and pairs finals are on January 9. The fours start January 10, with the finals on January 14.
