Ron’s spikes not required on green

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Ron Robertson, 2011 World Masters Athletics male athlete of the year, started bowling just over a year ago.

He had not long before won the eight-kilometre cross-country race for men 75 to 79 years old at the 2016 World Masters Athletics Championships in Perth. But it was the only one of four races he had entered that he was able to complete.

Six weeks before the championships he had pulled a tendon off the bone in his right shoulder, and the injury flared up during his gold-medal run.

But after resting up at home, Ron went down to the Gisborne Bowling Club greens to “see what they were doing”. His shoulder injury meant golf and running were out of the question.

“No one invited me; I’d had a bit of a break and felt like doing something,” he said.

“Someone came up and started talking, and soon I was playing.”

Ron and his wife Yvonne had played mercantile bowls, and he thought it would be reasonably easy to pick up.

“It’s a lot more challenging than I initially thought; that’s why I became more interested.”

And coming from a sport in which he trained alone most of the time and competed as an individual, Ron enjoyed the fellowship of the greens, the clubhouse and being in a team.

He has had some success, being half of a duo that won a club junior pairs title, but says he has not been particularly competitive. He has been happy with weekday afternoon club play, club tournaments and the occasional practice session.

Ron is grateful for the warm welcome he received from club members, the tips from experienced players, and the loan of a set of bowls while he decided whether this game was for him.

Having started his medal-winning and record-setting running career in his late 30s and bowls in his mid-70s, Ron is a confirmed late adopter of new sports. But he also believes in the value of starting young to develop the necessary skills and game sense.

He has been helping prepare Ilminster Intermediate’s AIMS Games cross-country team for the past few years, and he sees great benefits in bowlers starting young.

“I’d thought bowls was primarily an older person’s game but I realise now it can be very much a young person’s sport. It takes a long time to come to terms with the skills and knowledge the game requires at the higher levels.”