Multiple world champion Whanganui lawn bowler Peter Belliss named head Blackjacks coach

Newly-appointed Bowls New Zealand head coach Peter Belliss keeps his hand in during post section play of the Whanganui Open Men's Singles at the weekend.

Life just got busier for multiple Whanganui world champion lawn bowler Peter Belliss.

Belliss was last week named head coach of the New Zealand Blackjacks and his first mission will be to oversee all New Zealand's allocated slots are filled for the World Championships on the Gold Coast in Australia in May-June of 2020.

Belliss returned to his hometown for a quieter life after 16 years away involved in his chosen sport at the highest level.

However, he was lured back to the sports highest level as one of Bowls New Zealand's seven assistant coaches in 2013 before he was added to the national selection panel in 2014.

He has held both those roles until today and in fact continues as national selector alongside Phil Skogland junior and Marlene Castle, both also former international bowlers.

"The results from te last Commonwealth Games were not quite what we wanted, so there's been a bit of a change to our environment," Belliss said.

"We have introduced a new High Performance programme and as head I will be overseeing that and the seven assistant coaching positions. We will soon be naming our squads and each player will be assigned to a coach to prepare for upcoming international duty. We have the Asia Pacific tournament first in June on the Gold Coast and that takes on special importance because it is a qualifying tournament for the World Championships, also on the God Coast in 2020."

"My job is to oversee our programmes leading up to that. We also have a multi-national coming up in November on the Gold Coast followed by a trans-Tasman test. My role is a part time position and I'm happy about that because I still enjoy my lifestyle back home in Whanganui."

Belliss has returned to singles play after a substantial break away and just last weekend was tipped out of the Whanganui Open Men's singles competition at the quarter finals stage by Clint Park who will play the final against defending champion Gavin Scrivener in March.

"I've got the Taranaki singles coming up. I thought I'd get back into singles play just to keep my hand in," Belliss said.