Nigel Birkbeck (Wakari) has made a successful return to bowls and won two centre titles in the last two years.
His efforts came to fruition last night, when he was named the Bowls Dunedin male bowler of the year and was presented with the Stan Seear Trophy at the awards function at the Taieri Bowling Club.
The Millie Khan Memorial Trophy for the female bowler of the year was won by Sue Hodges (Outram) for a third time. She also won in 2006 and 2010.
Birkbeck, the owner of BJB Securities, started bowls competitively as a 15-year-old when he was a pupil at Otago Boys' High School. He has now played bowls for 25 years.
He had his first roll-up as a 9-year-old when he lived in Coromandel.
"I used to take lunches up to my grandfather when he was playing bowls," Birkbeck said.
"He asked me to have a social game with him."
Birkbeck had won five titles and his gold star when he took a break from bowls early in 2002.
"Bowls takes a heck of a lot of time when you play on Saturday morning and in the afternoon," he said.
"I needed more time to do other things to refresh myself."
He played football for the Roslyn-Wakari club during this time and when he injured his knee he knew it was time to return to bowls.
"The most important thing is to play with my mates at the Wakari club,"he said."The social side of bowls is most important for me."
Birkbeck won the open triples this year and also won two gold medals in bowls at the New Zealand Masters Games.
He also competed in athletics and won silver medals in the 100m and the long jump.
It was a close contest in the male bowler of the year competition. Four bowlers finished with 12 points and Birkbeck won on a countback.
The other bowlers were Peter Barron (Wakari), Bobby Johnson (Andersons Bay) and Alistair Keith (Taieri).
Hodges, a case manager at Milton Prison, has been playing bowls for 15 years and has won 13 Bowls Dunedin titles.
It was a successful season and she won four centre titles - open singles, open triples, mixed pairs and the champion of champion triples.
The most significant win was the mixed pairs that she won with Rex Calder because it was her 10th centre title and she added a bar to her gold star.
Hodges learned valuable lessons when she was a member of the New Zealand development squad and used the new techniques to plan her season.
Her plan worked perfectly as she regained her dominant position in Dunedin bowls.
Hodges (nee Phillips) grew up in Dunedin and was educated at Macandrew Intermediate and Queen's High School. She started playing bowls for fun 15 years ago but is now serious about the sport.
Hodges won the women's competition with 24 points and was followed by Lyn Rance (Green Island) 20 and Carolyn Crawford (St Clair) 18.
