A Kiwi bowls legend has rolled for the final time.
Suzanne McFadden for LockerRoom
Val Smith reckons if you knew her in her 20s, she’d be the last woman you’d imagine taking up lawn bowls.
Yet here she is, three decades later, retiring from the international game after playing an astounding 667 internationals for the BlackJacks.
One of the true greats in New Zealand bowls history, Smith was a two-time world champion, winning nine world champs medals and four more at the Commonwealth Games in her 22 years at the top. Now 59, she laughs at how unwittingly she was introduced to the game.
How she and her old school friend and flatmate, Jo Edwards — then both in the Football Ferns squad — entered a “sports all-rounder” competition to find the ultimate athlete in their hometown of Nelson, put to the test in 17 different sports. And it was, unexpectedly, bowls that struck a chord with both women.
Sixteen years later, “in a real fairytale”, they paired up to win a world championship bowls title.
“We were so far out of our comfort zones when we first joined lawn bowls, back in the days when there were really strict rules around your behaviour and what you had to wear,” she says.
“So here’s us, two women who’ve always been tomboys, who played football, softball and cricket and filled in at rugby and league games, and we were suddenly dressed in a way that was so uncomfortable — in all whites and skirts.
“We probably would have been the women you’d least expect to pick up a bowl during that time. But we were so fascinated with the game, we just wanted to have a crack at it.”
They put up with the skirts for a few years before — fortunately, Smith says — the sport finally allowed women to wear white shorts. “Then coloured clothing came in not long after that. It relaxed quite a lot,” she says.
There’s been no end of changes to bowls since Smith started in the early 1990s, including its evolution as a “competitive sport”.
“I’m sick of it being seen as an old person’s pastime. It’s actually an amazing competitive sport, but it’s taken some time for that to be acknowledged,” she says.
Over the five Commonwealth Games Smith played in (winning a silver in singles, and three bronze medals in triples and fours), that recognition grew, as did equality between the men’s and women’s games.
“The game has progressed to a sport that involves skill, tactics, energy and fitness, and it’s become more equal between men and women. You choose your tactics based on your strengths and weaknesses, and women can play aggressively, and men can play passively — it doesn’t matter. But it was very separated when I first started.”
Smith called time on her international career last weekend, after the BlackJacks women narrowly lost the transtasman series to Australia by points differential at Wellington’s Naenae club.
It was a whole raft of factors that led to her decision, she says — “both good and not-so-good reasons”.
“I could feel myself getting tired and if I’m representing New Zealand, I want to feel my best. I don’t want to be feeling angry, tired, or frustrated. I’m one of those people who wants to make a difference, create the best possible chance for success,” Smith says.
“And the way the world bowls scene is at the moment, there’s not enough international competition for me to be at my best. The drive and the passion are still there after 25 years, but playing once every 12 months is just too hard; you lose that edge.
“At the end of the day, we’re part-timers, not funded athletes. We still have jobs — in the past, a lot of us had to take leave without pay. But that was my choice, because I loved being in that environment.”
Smith — who sees herself as a “very ordinary” person — has been showered with plaudits and respect since she announced her retirement. “It’s been surreal. I don’t think it will really sink in until [the BlackJacks] start preparing for the next campaign,” she says.
Smith lost count years ago of how many international games she’s played. The only milestone she can remember was her 500th game — at the 2016 world championships in Christchurch (“we lost though”).
Her most memorable moment came during the 2008 world championships — also in Christchurch — where she won her women’s singles title.
“I was midway through my semifinal when it suddenly dawned on me, ‘Oh my god, you could win this thing’. It was one of those moments in time where you felt all the planets had aligned,” Smith says.
“Technically, I felt great. Mentally, I had so much clarity. I wasn’t feeling any pressure or stress. I guess all my training and preparation fell into place at the right time.
“Reflecting back, it’s the one and only time in my career where I had total clarity. I was focused on what I needed to do till the very last end of the game. I was on 20 and I just remember thinking to myself, ‘Just do it with your first bowl, Val’. And I drew a front toucher.”
It was all she needed to beat top Englishwoman Ellen Falkner, 21-13. She and Edwards also downed Falkner and Wendy King, 28-8, to take gold in the pairs.
There were other moments where she came close to total clarity again. “I tried to go back and emulate it — it’s what you strive for — but it’s hard,” she says.
“Our build-up to those world champs was a major factor. We were centralised in Christchurch for three months, so we trained like professional athletes. I loved it. But that’s never been able to be replicated, with funding and stuff.”
She has always been an extremely driven player and a great leader of New Zealand teams, Bowls NZ chief executive Mark Cameron pointed out this week.
“I wonder sometimes if you’re born with a mindset,” Smith says. “I’ve always felt like the kid in the sandpit. It’s all play, though you’re always looking at how to be better. I’ve never seen it as a chore. I’ve loved the fun and the thrill of the chase.”
Growing up in Nelson, Smith had a “special bond” with her parents, who never pressured her. Her dad spent hours in their backyard with Smith and her younger sister, Sandy, teaching them the skills of multiple sports: “But it was just play to us.”
“He’d take us to our sport, and then we’d sit and talk about the game for hours, and it would all be really constructive. He always made everything fun and interesting. Mum looked after us, but didn’t want to see us get hurt,” Smith says.
“I always wanted to make them proud because they did so much for us.”
Her parents died within a year of each other, when Smith was just 20. “It was such a shock; you don’t realise the strength and resilience you have until something serious like that happens,” she says. “It gave me the drive to still want to make them proud. Even after all these years.”
Smith and Edwards became friends at Nelson Girls College, but they met playing cricket for the Nelson Women’s XI — Smith was 17 and Edwards just 12 — and they played a touring team from the UK. “Women’s cricket wasn’t well known then, and Jo had just left intermediate school and was playing with the boys,” Smith recalls.
“We were the same height then, too.” But Edwards kept growing.
It was the start of a long and varied sporting career together.
“We played softball, touch and indoor cricket. Football was the big one, though,” she says.
The pair were in the New Zealand women’s football squad for six years, and Smith played for the national U21 and New Zealand B sides. She turned out for the Nelson women for 16 years.
The flatmates were playing softball as their summer sport, when the “sport all-rounder” competition came up. “We sat in our flat saying, ‘Isn’t lawn bowls an amazing game?’ And when the opportunity came to enter a team in a business house league for non-bowlers, we were like ‘Yeah, we’ll be into that.’” Smith remembers.
“At the end of the softball season we decided to take a year off and give lawn bowls a go. And we fell in love with it.”
When Smith ruptured her ACL playing football, ending that sporting career, she was able to pour her focus into bowls.
Edwards made her debut for the BlackJacks first, in 2001, and cemented her place in the team the following year by winning Commonwealth Games gold in the pairs with three-time world champion Sharon Sims.
When Smith first played for New Zealand in 2003, she had no expectations of playing pairs with her schoolmate. “It was a dream if it ever was to happen further down the track,” Smith says. A dream that came true at the 2008 world champs.
“When we were younger in the sport and a little more naïve, we only had to look at each other to know what the other was going to do next. We went through a nice period where ignorance was bliss, and we were like, ‘Oh, what happens if we try this?’ We had a no-fear mindset and it was exciting,” Smith says.
“Then we developed a bit more maturity and knowledge, and started playing the game strategically. There was a little more communication involved but most of the time we were on the same page. It was a pretty awesome time.”
Smith formed a strong affinity with other players over her career, especially the BlackJacks women who won the best overall team at the 2023 world championships (Smith won silver in the triples with Tayla Bruce and Leeane Poulson, and bronze in the fours with Poulson, Selina Goddard and Katelyn Inch). “I’ll really miss that bond we’ve formed in the women’s team,” she says.
Horticulture was Smith’s first trade out of high school, tending to Nelson’s public parks and gardens for 13 years and later doing the same for Tasman. She was a high school grounds person when she made her bowling debut for New Zealand.
“But when getting time off work to play became an issue, I went and painted ships,” she says. “It wasn’t a particularly healthy job working with rust dust and industrial base paints.” She moved to setting up cradles to lift boats out of the water, and learned to use a gas torch, but then started her own gardening business.
After Smith and Edwards spent time playing pennant bowls for the Merrylands club in Sydney, Smith ended up running the club for six years. It was a challenging time, as she tried to get equality for the women’s game, and she finally returned home during the global pandemic.
“It was the best thing I ever did. When I stepped off the plane in Nelson it was the first time in my life I’d experienced that kind of happiness,” she says.
Smith returned to her first passion, football — hired as operations administration manager at Mainland Football — but the hours weren’t enough, so she started a new career as a recruitment consultant, working with A-Temp Recruitment today. “I’m really enjoying learning all the time, meeting lots of people from different walks of life,” Smith says.
She’ll have more time now to work in her own small garden — but her bowling days are far from over. She and Edwards (who retired from international bowls in 2020) are off to Christchurch this weekend, playing for Nelson in a rep fixture.
Smith and Edwards are still great mates, and often catch up away from the bowling green.
Surely it must be time for the world champion pair to try another new sport?
“We’ve actually talked about pickleball,” Smith says. “The only problem is our bodies probably won’t allow us to do anything too much more than lawn bowls these days.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
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