Bowls: Belliss back on the case

MELBOURNE - Look carefully at Peter Belliss when you catch sight of him on the coverage of the bowls from the Melbourne Games. Try to imagine him in Australian colours. He nearly was.

Belliss was appointed head coach for Bowls Australia before pulling out and returning to New Zealand where he is co-coaching one of the fittest, hungriest and competitive of New Zealand bowls teams. But he was nearly lost to New Zealand bowls.

Belliss, a former world champion and one of the biggest influences in modern New Zealand bowls, had some well-publicised spats with Bowls New Zealand. They led to Belliss living and coaching in Australia, with a huge community of bowlers back home lamenting his loss to the game.

Now happily installed as co-coach by the same organisation with which he used to bang heads regularly, Belliss grins when you ask him if he is a poacher or gamekeeper these days. You get a sense he desperately wants to answer "poacher" before common sense re-asserts itself.

"I applied for the Australian position and got it," said Belliss. "But then I turned it down. I'd got talking to New Zealand again and decided to go for a role as a development officer for Bowls New Zealand. So I turned down the job as Australian coach."

It was a big call. Belliss had always been clear in his desire to continue working in bowls after his playing career ended and few people realise how close he came to adopting the green and gold with his career seemingly stymied in New Zealand.

At this stage we come to the tragic bit. New Zealand bowls coach Stu Buttar was stricken with cancer and died a week ago, opening the door for a new position for Belliss.

He was appointed co-coach with fellow former international Ann Muir and he is keen to emphasise that he would not have applied for this job if Stu had still be around.

"I would've been happy to help and it was not in my thoughts to challenge him or anything like that."

Whatever the tragic catalyst, the move appears to be a good one. Belliss is obviously enjoying himself and there seems to be a clear empathy between him and the team. He doesn't labour the point but it is clear that Bowls NZ will likely move to one head coach at some stage and Melbourne success will clearly benefit those involved.

So why did Belliss opt out of Australia if the job was bigger than that of a development officer?

"I think I'd been in Australia two or three years too long," he said. "We bought a home in Wanganui and my wife moved back there - it was time," he said.

But you can tell he would have preferred it if his good fortune had not been mixed up with the death of Buttar - a good friend and a team-mate in 1994 - when the men's four (Belliss, Buttar, Rowan Brassey and Bruce McNish) won a bronze at the Victoria Games.

Brassey and Belliss, huge names on bowls' world stage, have never won a Commonwealth gold medal, in spite of their world championships heroics.

Belliss' involvement has coincided with some interesting progression in the bowls team. There has been renewed vigour in terms of the fitness programme and the Kiwi bowlers were noticeably leaner and fitter than the Scots in a practice match this week.

This is nothing new, said Belliss. This programme has been around for a couple of years now. But it is interesting to see the team taking it seriously, given bowls players' famous love of social pursuits. The team have sworn off alcohol for the Games which was definitely not the case in Belliss' day.

Would he have done so in his time? "I think, in those days, it was a matter for the individual and it was right for then. But, these days, you have to keep improving, you have to find a way to get an edge."

"Look," said Belliss, sounding ever more like a pillar of the establishment, "this is a game of massive concentration and if you are fit, the mental side must come more easily. Common sense tells you that."

Common sense tells you that this bowls team could also be one of the better-performed in our history and that it is much the better for having Belliss on board.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY