Vets team up with world champ

EYES FRONT: The Palmerston North rivals (yellow) track the path of Bob Zaloum's bowl as he responds to skip Peter Belliss' call during the NZ Masters Men's Four match at Laird Park yesterday.PHOTO/STUART MUNRO WCSMBOWLS4

AGROUP of veteran Auckland bowlers refused to be overawed by their illustrious skip in the New Zealand Masters Games Men's Fours at Laird Park yesterday.

Colin Byers, Don Newitt and eldest of the trio, Bob Zaloum at 86, teamed up with multiple world champion Peter Belliss for their crack at the masters title.

The match-up had been made in Auckland before the group headed to Wanganui.

"There's about 16 of us that came this year from Auckland, including Reen Stratford who is Peter's partner and that's how we teamed up with him. I must say it was a bit daunting at first to play with a world champ," Zaloum said. "There's a group of us that are on our fourth NZ Masters tour and the alternate years we go to Dunedin, although we didn't last year."

Teammate Newitt also initially found it daunting.

"I freaked out when I first heard we were playing with Peter - I didn't want to look like an idiot," Newitt said.

However, they set aside their initial feelings as Belliss led the composite team to an 11-5 victory against a Palmerston North four in the first of four games scheduled for the day.

They lost their second game, but were looking solid in their third game as the Chronicle left them to do the business.

Belliss won gold in the NZ Masters mixed four on Tuesday - it was his first time at the NZ Masters despite it being in his hometown. He skipped the mixed four that featured his partner Stratford and fellow Aucklanders Robert Clark and Bev Herbert.

"This is my first masters games. I've been away for most of them, including living 16 years in Australia for my sins," Belliss said. "I regard myself these days as a competitive social bowler and I like the relaxed atmosphere here."

At the World Bowls Championships, Belliss won the 1984 singles in Aberdeen against local player Willie Wood, the 1988 pairs with Rowan Brassey, and triples with Brassey and Andrew Curtain in Johannesburg in 2000.

He has competed at four Commonwealth Games: 1982 (winning bronze), 1994 (winning bronze), 1998, and 2002. He was a coach at the 2006 event.