On Saturday and Sunday he was helping Patel run courses for coaches.
“Any youngsters aspiring to go somewhere in the sport should first get themselves a good-quality coach,” Edwards said when asked what he would tell ambitious bowlers.
“The other thing I would recommend they do is latch on to a good mentor-type of player.
“They don’t have to leave Gisborne. You have good-quality coaches here, and this is what the coach passport is all about — enthusing new coaches and upskilling those already active.”
Once the coach and mentor were in place, young bowlers should then dedicate themselves to the task, goal-setting, training and getting a good level of competition.
No need to stop living in Gisborne“Sometimes that will mean entering tournaments outside Gisborne, but they don’t have to stop living here.
“I live in Nelson and we have two players there in New Zealand’s world bowls team.”
One is Gisborne’s Shannon McIlroy; the other is Jo Edwards, Dave’s wife.
Dave Edwards, 59, and Patel, 52, often work in tandem.
“That’s the way it has to be in a small organisation,” Patel said. He spent part of his childhood in Birmingham and played schoolboy cricket for Worcestershire and minor counties cricket for Staffordshire.
He has never played bowls, but his coach-development and high-performance background — mainly in cricket — earned him a similar role with Bowls New Zealand.
Both Patel and Edwards have strong cricket links — their elder brothers played test and one-day cricket for New Zealand.
All-rounder Dipak Patel had the distinction of opening the bowling — as a spinner — for New Zealand at the 1992 Cricket World Cup; and wicketkeeper-batsman Jock Edwards thrilled crowds in the 1970s and ’80s.
Dave Edwards has a 33-year playing background in bowls and, yes, he played club cricket.
Surprised at Gisborne bowling sceneBoth Edwards and Patel were pleasantly surprised by what they found in the Gisborne bowling scene.
“In an organisation like ours, where we haven’t the resources to put people in place all over the country, the centres are left to do their own thing,” Patel said.
“The Gisborne-East Coast centre is doing a good job, and the relationship with Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti is a bonus. That sort of co-operation is not always the case.
“And this is the only area to have the coach passport programme. One of its strengths, from our point of view, is that bowls coaches can learn from coaches of other codes.”
The coach passport takes people through a staged programme covering the basics of how to coach groups, then sport-specific coaching and then more advanced techniques.
The sharing of ideas with coaches from different codes is a recognised byproduct, and some go on to take part in a mentoring programme.
Edwards and Patel said bowls was a game for all ages. The New Zealand team included a 20-year-old, Katelyn Inch, and a 60-year-old, Mike Kernaghan.
