Blind bowlers in the limelight

BLIND FAITH: The Wanganui Blind and Vision Impaired indoor bowls team (from left) Russell Lowry, Joe Twomey, Colleen Pryce, Ken Fredericksen and coach Maureen Conwell with their trophy.

A totally focused Whanganui team returned home from the annual New Zealand Blind and Vision Impaired Indoor Bowls Championships at Labour Weekend laden with medals and two national titles.

Two mixed teams were dispatched to Fielding by the Wanganui Blind and Vision Impaired Association, and one in particular returned home winners.

The fours team, skipped by Ken Fredericksen with Joe Twomey at No3, Colleen Pryce No2 and Russell Lowry the lead, won the Open Fours title, while Maureen Conwell was awarded the coach's medal.

Pryce and Fredericksen then combined to take the pairs title. Fredericksen's form continued into the competition allowing him to finish runner-up in the men's partially-sighted singles.

Fredericksen, who is also national federation chairman, said the Wanganui association had a long successful history at national bowls level beginning from the first year they competed in 1965. That competition also included Twomey.

"I guess it's difficult for fully sighted to understand how we do it," Fredericksen said yesterday.

"There were 86 competitors at the nationals in Feilding and you would have been hard pressed to find two eye conditions the same. The fours must have at least one fully blind player in the team. It all comes down to the banter between player and coach, the practice that's been put in, and instinct."

Lowry, the only totally blind player in the team, said he could judge distance through instinct enhanced by practice and then followed an imaginary line created in part by instructions from the coach.

Lowry agreed totally blind people had vision, just not in the same way as fully sighted people comprehended.

Pryce and Fredericksen were coached by Auckland-based Phyllis Fox for this competition.
"Phyllis has just retired as national federation secretary, a job that has not been taken up by Joe's wife Francis ," Fredericksen said.