Blind bowls: Auckland pair prevail

David Monk with wife/director Kathleen plays a shot, while Parveen Shankar waits for his turn.

In his first year of total blindness, Glenn Hanneman has won a national title in Hawke's Bay.

Competing in the B1 grade of the blind bowls championship at Havelock North Club yesterday, the 52-year-old combined with fellow Aucklander Parveen Shankar to shrug off a strong challenge from David Monk (Tauranga) and Louise Henry (Waikato), who were runners-up.

"We had a tough game against David Monk and Louise to beat them comprehensively [17-6 on Wednesday] but this morning we lost to them 9-5," skip Hanneman said, as he and lead Shankar controlled their nerves to collect some silverware last night at the end of the tourney.

Monk is the world singles champion but in the two-day pairs competition names were drawn out of the hat on day one to match combinations.

South African-born Hanneman praised his younger teammate, who has only been playing for four years.

Hanneman started playing straight out of school in Durban when he was 19 years old and won a title.

"I changed jobs, so I didn't play for about 15 to 20 years."

He moved to New Zealand for a good job opportunity and to give his son Luke, now 20, "a better chance at life".

"He's our proper Kiwi, mate."

Hanneman became a partially blind (B2) player after developing macular degeneration. It is a medical condition that results in a loss of vision in the centre of the visual field (the macula) because of damage to the retina.

Macular degeneration can make it difficult or impossible to read or recognise faces, although enough peripheral vision remains to allow other activities of daily life.

"I can still see light and dark but it takes a bit getting used to it," he said.

Hanneman's sight went gradually.

"You sort of start to walk into some things and realise you could see them before."

Hanneman receives coaching from Birnie Yeo.

"He's a good coach and went through the whole process of giving me advice through total blindness."

In the B2 grade, Keith Bell (Havelock North) and David Bradding (Waikato) prevailed in the round-robin competition. The Auckland pair of Ron Syme and Chely Jackson were runners-up.

In the combined B3 and B4 grade, which is for partially sighted and more partially sighted competitors, David Stallard (Auckland) and Sue Curran (Waikato) were champions. The pair were fourth at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games this year.

Danny Simon (Hamilton) and Robin Reti (Tokoroa) were runners-up.