13/10/2026
One of the country’s top coaches, Graeme Rees, and one of its most promising young women’s players, Hannah Dawson, came together yesterday to win the Takapuna club’s Celebrity Pairs tournament sponsored by Harcourts Cooper & Co Real Estate - TEAM ROGERS.
Graeme, from Canterbury’s powerhouse Burnside club, and Hannah, who is a joint member of Takapuna and Auckland’s Howick, were the only four winners from all of the 32 teams and so collected first prize of $500.
In second place with three wins and a draw, were other emerging talents among women’s players, Hobsonville’s Carol Voshaar and Deanne Bronlund, both leading lights in recent North Harbour one-to-five yea representative teams and in third place, as the best of the three winners, Takapuna stalwarts Chris Taylor and Jan Calcott.
Carol and Deanne won $250 as runners-up and Chris and Jan $150.
There was also $100 each awarded to those winners with the most ends in the respective rounds: Frankie Lim and Shaun Pennell from Counties-Manukau (first round), Steve Boyce and Tim Preston from Tairua in Thames Valley (second round), Mark Cameron and Alex Reed (Bowls NZ in the third round) and Hitesh Ranchod and Richie Rogers (in the fourth round).
A measure of the stiff competition was the high number of quality players who missed out on the extensive prize list.
Among them were bowlers with national championships like Browns Bay’s Matt Berry, Takapuna’s own Lisa Dickson, Leeane Poulson, Robyne Walker and Thames Coast’s evergreen Val Matthews, who was the winning skip in the national women’s fours in 1995-96. And there were others who have been national championship podium finishers like Brett O’Riley, Adele Ineson, Connie Mathieson and Elaine McClintock and a host of centre champions.
Val Matthews, indeed, has an incredible 52 centre titles to her credit and clearly enjoyed playing with Takapuna’s promising junior, Glenis Ryan.
There were other nice touches to the day, with the amazing Orewa veteran Elizabeth Ring still competitive at 89 and at the age extreme, Browns Bay’s Max Yates, who is just 15.
And Hannah Dawson, the tournament’s winner with master coach Graeme, is only 20 and already with a national fours title. Next month she will play in the national under 26 team in the Oceania tournament at Orewa.
Her success capped a great day for the instigator two years ago of Takapuna’s Celebrity Pairs and life member Graham Dorreen, who is Hannah’s personal coach. During the lunch break Graham was honoured by World Bowls for the work he has undertaken supporting the development of the sport in Japan. World Bowls President Brett O’Riley and fellow Takapuna club mate Japan international Keiko Kurohara presented a commemorative plaque to Graham.
Brett at the break interviewed Bowls New Zealand chief executive Mark Cameron, who revealed among the national body’s aims was to secure the introduction of a New Zealand Open, attracting the best international bowlers, hopefully in late March, 2028.
Graham, the Celebrity tournament’s director, estimates the event may have brought $2000 into the club’s coffers, such was the support for the bar. Others who contributed to a successful day were Harcourt Cooper & Co TEAM ROGERS sponsors, Matt Rogers and Travis Adolph, kitchen supremos Jenni Taylor and Sue Noble and Richard Molitor who master-minded the computerised results.
