That mistake gave the jack to Mills, who changed the game by sending it only half the distance down the green. All the ends up to then had been long, but Mills had to break the pattern.
It worked. She had bowled to various lengths in practice, and the change threw her opponent.
Mills beat Stevenson 21-18, then in a virtual title decider beat Northland bowler Sue Wightman, another former national singles champion, 21-6.
As the only one of the six finalists to have won four out of five games, Mills won the title.
Her one loss was to Mary Campbell, another former national singles champion. She did Mills a favour by subsequently beating Wightman in their second-last round-robin game. Until then, Wightman had not lost.
Mills had to go through an arduous qualification process to reach the finals in Browns BayMills had to go through an arduous qualification process to reach the finals in Browns Bay.
To be the Gisborne-East Coast centre’s representative, she first had to win the centre women’s singles title. That meant four games on the first day to qualify for post-section play (she won all four), then three sudden-death games on the second.
From there, Mills contested the zone finals in Taradale against the Manawatu, Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay representatives. She won all three games.
With the five games she played in the national finals in Browns Bay, Mills played a total of 15 games on her way to the title and lost only one.
Mills, 61, has made rapid progress since she started playing bowls 12 years ago.
Dayvinia has played representative netball, won the Tolaga Bay junior golf title and played rugbyFrom the Bartlett family of Tolaga Bay, she was an East Coast netball representative in the days when the Coast had its own competition; she played golf, winning the junior title at Tolaga Bay; and she played women’s rugby.
Mills was living in Putaruru when a neighbour introduced her to mercantile bowls 12 years ago. The competitive instinct kicked in, and Mills was soon serious about the sport.
She was egged on by her mother, Peggy Maurirere, who lives in Wellington.
“Mum’s been a keen bowler for nearly 30 years,” Mills said.
“Two years after I’d started, I was playing lead in the team that Mum skipped to victory in the Aotearoa National Maori Bowls Tournament at Ruawai in Northland in 2008.”
The following year, when the tournament was held at Gisborne’s Kahutia Bowling Club greens, they were runners-up to the team they had beaten in the final the previous year.
Most of the coaching Mills has received has been in the form of tips rather than formal sessions. This was the case in Putaruru, in Gisborne at the Riverside club, in Upper Hutt at the Silverstream club from 2008 to 2010, and in Gisborne again, at the Kahutia club.
Glenys Whiteman has been a major influenceGlenys Whiteman has been a major influence.
“We always practised together, and I played in her team,” Mills said.
Others were Vern Marshall and Jim and Emily Hongara.
A competitive nature and an even temperament proved a potent combination for Mills on the greens.
She won her first Kahutia club junior title (for those with up to 10 years of bowling experience) in the singles in 2012, and repeated the feat the following three years. She was a junior pairs winner in 2014 and ’15.
In the senior ranks, she was in the winning team for the open triples six times from 2012 to 2018, the graded fours three times, the intermediate fours twice and the mixed pairs twice.
She has won the club open singles once, this year. Her opponent? Glenys Whiteman, winner of 59 centre titles, the most won by any woman in New Zealand.
Mills had to win back-to-back games against Whiteman to win the title. She won both by identical scores, 21-19, in games that husband Trevor Mills described as the bowls equivalent of a knock-’em-down drag-’em-out slugfest, with the result in doubt right to the end.
Do tough competitive games like these leave any ill feeling off the green?
A firm answer: “No. It’s competitive but always friendly.”
Still, it was nice to turn the tables on her mentor Whiteman, who had beaten Mills in the final the year before.
And it was Whiteman who, in 2011, skipped the four with whom Mills won the first of her 15 centre titles (which have earned her a gold star and two bars). The other members of that team were Francie Adair and Anita Vaotuua.
“I normally play at two in fours,” Mills said.
“My job is to draw the shot, get as close as possible to the jack, and behind it. When Glenys drives, she doesn’t like any bowls in the way.”
These days, her favourite discipline is singles. She says experience helps . . . to recognise the strengths and weaknesses of opponents, or whether they favour one side of the rink.
With a big tournament — like the national club champs — coming up, Dayvinia practises every dayNormally she plays bowls every weekend, but with a big tournament — like the national club champs — coming up, she practises every day. She varies the length of the jack delivery and aims to be ready to handle any given situation in a game.
The Gisborne and Kahutia club greens are playable for most of winter, but to be on the safe side, Mills registers as a winter member at Poverty Bay, which has an artificial surface that is playable in almost all conditions.
Her first big out-of-town tournament was the national championships in Dunedin last year. She had won the centre open singles and decided to see how she’d go on the national stage.
“It was an eye-opener,” Mills said.
'It got me thinking about how I could do better'“I won only two games, but it got me thinking about how I could do better. Next year I might have a crack at the New Zealand open singles.”
Mills is employed by Idea Services as a support worker at a residential IHC home. She is working towards a Level 4 national certificate in health and wellbeing.
She plans to keep playing bowls as long as she is able to get around the green. But next summer another sport is likely to take up some of her time.
Kahutia Bowling Club has plans for a petanque court of international standard, and Dayvinia Mills can hardly wait.
