Paris Speers and Alex Zurcher from SuperStrike Tenpin Bowling in Hastings display the 18-medal haul of HB juniors team after the nationals in Auckland. PHOTO/Paul Taylor
NO ONE, least of all Paris Speers, saw it coming but the youngster has rolled her arm with some pinpoint accuracy to strike it big.
The 12-year-old from Te Pohue School has returned from Auckland as the New Zealand junior bantam champion (under-13) after the nationals late last month at the Pins bowling alley in Waitakere.
Speers, who competed as a member of the Hawke's Bay junior team, collected five gold medals, a silver and a shield as overall national champion.
Remarkably, she is only in her first year of the children's league at the SuperStrike centre in Hastings.
"I came to my birthday party here in June last year and then my brother's one after that and thought it was good fun," she says.
Speers combined with fellow first-year teammate Alex Zurcher to smash a national junior record in the doubles section after accruing 1443 points between them.
"Alex and Paris average in the 90s so for them to get around 188 each at the nationals is just amazing," says team manager Barbara Nonu, who also runs the Hastings centre.
Zurcher was runner-up to Speers as a bantam although he went on to clinch the bantam masters title, which is the top 10 qualifiers from all the nine singles, doubles and team grades coming head-to-head against each other.
The Bay team returned with 18 medals.
"It's a long time since I've seen kids like Paris and Alex with so much determination," says Nonu.
She says it's the best juniorteam she has taken to a national juniors championship in six years while running the centre for 28 years.
But Speers' meteoric rise in tenpin bowling takes a new meaning when she reveals her family travel from Te Haroto, along State Highway 5, to Hastings - an hour's drive - so their children can play.
Her mother, Priscilla Drummond, and step father Derrick Erwin, are farm workers who also play tenpin during the visits.
"We come into town for shopping on Mondays so I play from 5pm," says Paris Speers.
Brother Angus Speers, 17, was part of the junior team that finished runners-up at the nationals.
"He's really good and I've beaten him a few times," she says with a grin. "But he's a real big help and will tell me when I hit a bad shot."
Sister Porsha Drummond, 8, missed out on a bronze medal by two pins to finish fourth.
For Speers it's simply about keeping her mind out of the gutter, as it were, when she picks up her size 10 to 12 bowls - the bigger size, Nonu explains, shows she is becoming stronger as she grows.
"I just focus and I pretend I'm in the room by myself so I just think about hitting the pins."
It wasn't something she was able to do with ease.
"Before when I played a dumb shot I let it get to me.
"Now, sometimes, I don't even think about it and just play my next shot."
Speers is third in the kids' league at the Hastings centre, up against younger opponents who have a handicap of 140 compared to her 90.
Competing at the Pins in west Auckland from September 25-29 meant a lot to her in her first nationals.
"My parents were really happy and gave me $200," she says, spending it on some clothes and buying gifts as a thank-you gesture to Nonu and Bay coach George Lambert, a former New Zealand representative.
Speers dreams of becoming a professional after she graduates from university with a degree.
"I want to get on TV and travel around the world bowling."
Nonu says as a group of country children they had blossomed since they took to the alleys.
"They have just come out of their shells. Paris will definitely go into the big time because she has a lot of drive," she says.
Quite often youngsters venture to out-of-town tourneys and tend to go one way or other because it can be quite daunting at big centres.
"But this group is amazing because they've got the drive from within."
Zurcher, who she says "has a lovely nature", bowled his highest game.
That, Nonu says, also comes from a supportive family.
BAY PERFORMERS
■ Paris Speers: NZ junior bantam champion (U13), 2nd junior bantam masters, 1st all events in junior bantams, 1st singles junior bantams, junior graded teams' event winner.
■ Alex Zurcher: NZ junior bantam champion (U13) runner-up, junior bantam masters champion, 2nd all events in junior bantams.
■ Doubles: Speers and Zurcher broke NZ record with their winning total of 1443, 1st junior graded doubles.
■ Rebekah Baxter: 3rd in open girls' doubles, 1st equal in youth girls' open singles, member of winning open girls' team, 3rd all events youth girls.
■ 2nd junior graded teams: Alex Zurcher, Christian Karatau, Angus Speers and Ben King.
■ Porsha Drummond: 8-year-old who was 4th in junior bantam singles, missing a medal by 2 pins.