Bowls: Charismatic champion was also a great teacher

Nick Unkovich, one of New Zealand's most charismatic personalities, described by one of his proteges, Danny O'Connor, as the Sean Fitzpatrick of bowls, died in Auckland on Thursday, aged 83.

Unkovich possessed a flamboyant, extroverted nature which often led to his being at odds with the game's hierarchy. But he was also a highly accomplished player who won a record 10 national titles.

Eight of these were in the fours between 1971 and 1986, and he also won the singles championship in 1979 and the pairs title with fellow Aucklander Ross Haresnape in 1991.

His first bowling was in Waikato. It was with the Matamata club, in a four skipped by the late Jack Somerville, that he won his first national title. But his main fame came as skip of a number of combinations from Auckland's Okahu Bay club in the mid-1970s to the early 80s. In later years he played with another Auckland club, Rawhiti.

Among the players he helped promote to international stardom were Rowan Brassey, twice a world champion, and O'Connor, nine-times a national champion.

"Nick taught us a tremendous amount. He was the man to follow in the 1980s. His record as a fours skip may never be equalled," said Brassey, who was lead in the Okahu Bay national winning four in 1981-82.

Despite his dominance of national championships, Unkovich played only sporadically for NZ and never went to a Commonwealth Games. His last international appearance was in the 1986 transtasman tests.