Bowls: Champ admits rum goings-on

Dwayne Cameron reckons that without the help of his great mate from Gisborne, former New Zealand representative David File, he would not have scored his sensational upset national singles final win over Rowan Brassey last Wednesday.

And not for the fact that File, four years his senior, provided him with the most encouragement in his early career, or that File drove from Gisborne to Auckland through the night to make the Henderson green so that he could give him moral support in the final.

Cameron reveals that File's master stroke, and what led to the dramatic match's turning point, came when Brassey had shot away to a 9-0 lead and was seemingly on his way to his first national title.

"When it was 9-0 Dave came out with a handle and said 'get that into you, you've got to do something'," Cameron said yesterday between matches in the national fours.

Immediately after the final, Cameron insisted the dark brown liquid he consumed was ginger beer. But he now admits: "I think it was more straight rum."

As well as defying much of the nutritional advice which comes the way of top sports competitors these days, Cameron says the training schedule he followed to take out the national singles title was not from the conventional coaching manual.

"I don't think my preparation could be recommended to anyone," he said.

"I haven't been doing any practice at all. The only bowls I've played all season is one rep game for Counties-Manukau and at the Homai club I just played in the championship pairs. In fact, I wasn't going to play the singles at all and it was only my partner who talked me into it.

"But then, as a kid, I used to practise every day after school, so perhaps ... it has paid off."

At the instigation of his grandfather in Gisborne, John Jones, he started playing bowls as an 11-year-old and during his teenage years and into his early 20s he had emerged as one of the country's brightest talents.

In 1996, aged 20, he made the New Zealand under-30 team for the first time and after playing for the under-25s in 1998 won his black blazer by playing in a quadrangular tournament in Zimbabwe, with team-mates Paul Girdler, Russell Meyer, Brian Baldwin and Glen McDonald.

But in recent seasons his career had tapered off and during a lengthy stint in Wellington, where he played first for the Victoria and then the Naenae clubs, he had failed to make the centre representative team.

He had moved to Counties earlier last year to work as a painting contractor with bowls very much down his list of priorities. "I was getting to a stage where, after having played for 17 years, I was finding there was more to life than bowls."

Allied to that had been the breakup of a long-term relationship which meant only limited access to his four-year-old son. Without going too much into personal details Cameron said: "I've had a few dramas in the last few months."

But now a little more order is coming into his life. He is marrying his new partner, Kim, in April and while he says he will continue his rule of work coming before his bowls, he is prepared to reassess that if need be.

"I'll just play things by ear, but I'm still only 28 and bowls is one of those sports which you can always go back to."

While File's rum trick had proven the steadier his nerves may have needed, Cameron insists he always went into the game with self-belief.

"But it was difficult not to have a feeling that the big crowd at Henderson had turned up to see Rowan win his first national singles," he said. "And I have to say I really felt for him, even though I went out to do my best to spoil it for him."

Brassey had always been a bowler he revered.

Whatever happens in his bowls career, Cameron accepts he almost certainly will have to continue working as a painting contractor.

But he has given playing as a semi-professional, probably in Australia, more than a passing thought.

"Actually, in 1998 the Merrilands club in Paramatta near Sydney offered me a job, which would have involved working in the bar, coaching and playing, but I turned it down," he says.