Bowls: Nine of the best, but not quite good enough

One of the great mysteries of New Zealand lawn bowls was revived when Danny O'Connor won his ninth national title at Henderson on Wednesday.

For despite his swag of national honours, mainly playing at three in fours, O'Connor has received sparse recognition through being selected as a New Zealand representative.

He was at the Commonwealth Games in 1992, where he won a silver medal, but since 1983, when he had a disastrous time as a singles player in a transtasman test series, he has been largely overlooked.

All sorts of reasons may be advanced for ignoring O'Connor, but he has no doubts who is most to blame.

"It's been my own fault," he says. "If I had learned to shut up and concentrate simply on playing bowls then maybe I could have been another Rowan Brassey or Gary Lawson.

"But the Irish comes out in me. If I see something I don't like or disagree with, I've never minded making my viewpoint known."

One of the theories for his neglect has been his fondness for an ale ... or three.

But O'Connor does not think that is the case even if he admits he did over-indulge in his youth.

"But that's way, way out now," he said. "I do work for the breweries [part-time, as a promotions and liaison man with clubs in the Auckland region] but I never have anything more when I visit them than a half pint or quarter pint and sometimes I even have a lemonade.

"In the old days I did drink a little too much.

"But not now. I drink only moderately. I can't afford to be anything other than that. If I did I'd then lose my licence, my job and my marriage."

But while his forthright opinions may have cost him, O'Connor still does not shrink from offering some trenchant criticism of the way New Zealand bowls has evolved.

"I think they've been screwing too many things up with science," he says.

"A lot of bowlers can't understand what is going on. It's all very confusing. The number of bowlers has been getting smaller in recent years yet the administration keeps on getting bigger."

He is also baffled by the increasing use of psychologists and nutritionists at elite levels.

"I don't disagree with the emphasis on fitness," he says. "That's very important because you have to be very fit to play day after day in world championships and Commonwealth Games, but the mindbenders and the like are where I draw the line.

"And what you eat is what you eat. It's just a matter of being sensible and looking after yourself. This is not a complicated game. I think they're trying to make bowlers something they're not."

O'Connor wonders whether there has been too much of a preoccupation with youth.

"Bowls should be targeting people in the 35-50 age group," he says. "That's where it's missing out. Targeting kids is all right but when they discover what else there is in life they become distracted."

The development of Richard Girvan, skip of the four O'Connor won his national title with this week, graphically illustrates the growing gap between Australia and New Zealand, O'Connor believes. Girvan moved to Australia in 1999.

"As much as I can't stand losing to Australians in any sport, you have to admire their professionalism," O'Connor says.

"When he [Girvan] left here, he was an ordinary player but they turned him into a potential champion and potential New Zealand player."

No one was more surprised than O'Connor when he added a ninth title to his national swag, which appeared to have come to an end 10 years ago when he was in an all-Okahu Bay Brassey-skipped four which won at Palmerston North.

Though he is a member of two clubs, Okahu Bay, of which he is president, and Takapuna in the North Harbour centre, he is not much more than a weekend bowler now and can't even make the Harbour 10-man representative squad.

"I'm really a part time bowler. I've got two jobs [plastic fabricator during the week and for the breweries on the weekends or evenings], so I've got a big noose around my neck."

Work, his wife and two teenage daughters, Catherine and Bridget, now came first.

But he is contemplating a defence of the fours title in Wellington next year, should Girvan and his Australian club-mate Wayne Turley and Dunedin's Steve Beel decide to compete together again.

Not that he wants to displace Nick Unkovich from his pedestal as New Zealand's only bowler with 10 national titles.

"Absolutely not," he says. "There'll never be another Nick."

O'Connor believes he was lucky to come under Unkovich's wing more than 20 years ago, just as he was fortunate this week to be part of an excellent team again.

"The worst thing that happened to me was to be picked to play for New Zealand in singles," he says. "Anyone with half a brain should have worked out I wasn't a singles player.

"When I won the national singles [in 1983] I was lucky. I'm best playing in a team, because I'm a yapper and an encourager of other people.

"This week I showed the advantage of getting into a good team and playing with good bowlers.

"Really, I don't think of myself as naturally all that good. Rowan, Richard and Gary Lawson, for example, are miles better bowlers than I am.

"I've been lucky and the big thing that Nick Unkovich taught me was to have confidence in what you were doing."

DANNY O'CONNOR

9 national titles

5 fours titles

3 pairs titles

1 singles title