Peter Belliss says it is nice to get the recognition from World Bowls. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
Whanganui-born and raised international lawn bowls player and coach Peter Belliss has made the inaugural World Bowls Hall of Fame list.
World Bowls announced its first Hall of Fame inductees, which included 31 global bowls players, with Belliss joined by four other Kiwis.
The athletes will be celebrated on November 8 after the inaugural World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This is Belliss’ third Hall of Fame induction. He was inducted into the Whanganui Sport Hall of Fame in 2008 and the first Bowls New Zealand Hall of Fame in 2013.
“It’s nice to get the recognition, it’s nice to be part of it and great that there is recognition for those who have made a contribution to the sport over the years,” he said.
Peter Belliss was born in 1951 and attended Wanganui Boys’ College (now Whanganui City College).
The Aramaho Bowling Club was established in 1956, when Belliss was 5, and it was built behind his parents’ property.
Belliss played his first tournament when he was 8.
He said the physical convenience of the club and the fact that his parents played bowls were big factors in getting involved.
While he was a handy rugby player, cricketer and rower, Belliss suffered an injury to his knee, which inspired him to prioritise bowls instead.
He started playing bowls competitively in the 1969-70 season when he was 18.
“I was always going to play bowls ... I just got hooked once I started playing competitively,” he said.
“It came naturally to me. If you are good at something, it helps, but you’ve still got to work hard.”
Despite experiencing national success in the late 1970s, Belliss said winning the 1981 national singles title was the “breakthrough” that spurred him on to achieve higher accolades.
“For me, playing for New Zealand was one of the goals; being the world champion was also one of the goals,” he said.
“When I started playing internationally, it was the start of the journey. For some players, it is the end of their journey.”
In 1982, he became New Zealand’s first professional lawn bowler after collecting bronze at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games.
He went on to represent New Zealand more than 40 times.
His notable gold medal victories in the World Outdoor Bowls Championships include the 1984 men’s singles title in Aberdeen, the 1988 men’s doubles title with Rowan Brassey in Auckland and the men’s triples in Johannesburg in 2000, with Brassey and Andrew Curtain.
He won medals at two Commonwealth Games and six Asia Pacific Bowls Championships, winning four golds.
Belliss said it was difficult to choose his most memorable moment in the sport because all three of the world title victories were special for different reasons.
His first world title was special because he had to adapt to the slower greens in the Northern Hemisphere.
“It was generally regarded that no one in the Southern Hemisphere could win in the Northern Hemisphere,” he said.
“I couldn’t understand how our best players would go up there and get flogged but [when] you go up there and try it, you realise.
“I had to relearn the game if I wanted to be successful internationally. I didn’t want to just be an international player; I wanted to be a successful international player.”
It was also special because he had visualised beating Scottish player Willie Wood in the final after losing to him in 1982.
“Something I used to visualise was that we’d be 20-all and I’d have to play my backhand bowl, which was the weakest of my shots, to win the game, and that was exactly what happened,” Belliss said.
Belliss was named Whanganui sportsperson of the year in 1981, 1982 and 1983 – ironically becoming ineligible the following year when he became world champion because there was a rule that no one could win more than three total.
In the 1988 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Belliss was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to bowls.
After he retired as a professional player, he became assistant coach for the Blackjacks Bowls NZ national team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and became head coach in 2019.
Other Kiwis inducted into the World Bowls Hall of Fame are Rowan Brassey, Jo Edwards, Sharon Sims and Val Smith.
Belliss said it was great to be in good company but there were others he thought were unlucky to miss out, such as Elsie Wilkie, Shannon McIlroy, Harry Wilson, Russell Meyer and his triples title win teammate Andrew Curtain.
“This is the start, and no doubt that those others, at some stage, will be there,” he said.
Belliss believes New Zealand bowls needs more investment to compete with the dominance of Australia in the past 20 years.
“That’s come about purely through the money that is in sport in Australia – and that comes through their clubs,” he said.
During his time in Australia, he noticed there were strong school programmes which allowed players to devote time to practising.
“While we might have half a dozen players who we think are pretty good, Australia will have 200 at that level so, consequently, they’ll continue to dominate.”
As for the global game, Belliss said the push to get bowls played at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics would be “absolutely huge for the sport” if it materialised.
Nowadays, Belliss is an ambassador for Bowls Whanganui and regularly plays after retiring several years ago.
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.