Martin (32), a Wellington painter, is marking his 20th year of bowls, and would like nothing more than to celebrate it with a few wins and a call-up to the national team.
The New Zealand emerging player of the year in 2020, Martin has experienced a small taste of international competition, but only at age group and development level.
He made the final nine players in the training squad for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games earlier this year, and missing the final cut to five representatives only fuelled his desire to crack into A grade selection.
"The advice I have is keep doing what I’m doing and keep performing," he told the Otago Daily Times.
"I’m still chasing that and wanting to be in there."
On Martin’s radar is the world championships in Melbourne next year.
"I just have to perform, really. I still haven’t worn the official fern yet so any opportunity that comes my way, I just want to be part of it."
Wellington is home to nationally recognised players such as Seamus Curtin, Finbar McGuigan and Caleb Hope, so Martin could not want for better regional competition.
He also had a chance to rub shoulders with emerging talents Sheldon Bagrie-Howley, Keanu Darby, Nick Buttar, Oliver Mason, Jonty Horwell and Rory Soden at the North East Valley 10,000 at the weekend.
"They are outstanding talents and it’s not easy when they, too, are knocking on the door of selection just as I am.
"We are all mates but on the green we are all trying to beat each other."
The New Zealand team in Birmingham had experience but also plenty of youth, and Martin — who has had development trips to Australia and Britain — knows he will have to get results to get into the Blackjacks.
He was a semifinalist at the Dunedin tournament last year, and returned for a fourth tilt at the title at the weekend, becoming the only undefeated player up to the semifinal stage, when he was knocked out by Darby.
"This is a great tournament. Great players. So it’s pretty cut-throat.
"The first goal is to try and top the section. Draw a quarter. Then you’re just trying to win. You want to be playing that final."
Martin credits his father, Marty, for his interest in bowls and pathway to the elite level.
As a solo father, Marty would take the young Ray around the greens with him when he played.
"Bowls as a young kid is pretty boring to sit on the sidelines and watch, so I ended up having roll-ups at 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, and by the age of 12 was a full playing member," he said of his long association with the Victoria Club in Wellington.
"I love the club. I love the boys up there. We’ve got a good club."
After winning Wellington centre titles and achieving his gold star, Martin is more content at club level to play and inspire some of the lesser-knowns within the Victoria Club ranks.
"I’m making more of an effort to get our members involved, included and playing. That makes me try harder and it lifts them as well as myself."
By Wayne Parsons
