October 12, 2025 • 7 mins
Adam Cooper was joined for the first regular bowls report of the summer by Bowls Wellington Board member Rod Leitch.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's begin our regular Bowls reports just after seven o'clock
every Saturday, right through the summer months, we do a
full rap of the bowls scene. Joining us for the
reports this summer Bowls Wellington board member Rod Leach, who's
in studio with me this morning. Morning to year. Rod,
thanks for our coming by and being part of the
coverage this season.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Looking forward to it. Adam, thank you for having me
and yeah, let's kick off the.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Season absolutely and hopefully the weather slightly improves too. And
I mean give us a bit of background. Our listeners
love for listening up to these weekly Bowls reports through
the summer months. Tell us a bit about your You're
involvement with bowls and I understand it's been very extensive
over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Very much so. It started back in eighty one, so
been playing for some quite some time. Been on the
board of Bowls Wellington for the last fourteen years and
the Wellington Selected for the last six so and breaking
into another two years of that just coming up. So
for the men's open site great so looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And what's your club?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I played Johnsonville great started an upper hut started apart
back in eighty one, went to Victoria in the mid
nineties when Gary Lawson first came to town, played a
bit with Gary and then moved to Victoria. Sorry to Johnsonville.
Been at Johns Fall since the late nineties.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wonderful and you would have over seen a lot of
different stages and eras of the sport. Where does it
sit now? In your opinion?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It is changing. The type of bowl people use is changing.
I mean I come from the days when you went
three rinks ride to draw a shot. Now we go
straight up the middle. So it's a whole new game. Yeah, okay,
and a lot of more young ones in the game
now too, Yeah, compared to back then.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's always been a growth area, hasn't it a focus area?
So I'm sure that will continue this season as well. Right,
let's talk some of these early season events that are happening,
Rod and tomorrow developments against event against to Montowa two
and this is the Tricks Welsh Trophy. Tell us a
bit about this.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, that's kicking out. That kicks off the representative season
four us. It's been played out of Tawa, so by
all means, if anyone's got a couple of hours, are
trying to kill on tomorrow they can come along and
get into that. We we've now decided to select our
development side. Development is one to ten, but Wellington has
taken the stants that we're now going to pick our
development players from one to five years playing. It doesn't
(02:03):
matter about age. You can be twenty two, one hundred,
you're still a development player for your first one to
ten years. But we're sticking to one to five. We
think personally that if people aren't cutting it after five,
perhaps they they may not be a representative player. But
there's certainly some very very good five to ten players
that should be that we're now looking at it in
the open side.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So cool and how much bearing does this often have
on what lies ahead the season or is it pretty
early to tell just where everyone's at?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Probably early to tell. I mean we do take a
lot on board with results earlier in the season. We've
won the New Zealand Championship for the last three years,
which has been a great result. First time Wellington's ever
done it three years in a row. Only two other
centers in the country have done it three years in
a row in the history of the game. We're hoping
to do a four feet which would be the first ever.
But we saying that the three years we have won,
(02:49):
we've had a different team each year, so we're open
to putting anyone in there. They show us the goods,
so we're happy to have a look at them.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Any names from Wellington you see in these teams for
this one this weekend that you sort of see and
think could be crucial players or once to look out for.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I mean you've got the young Marshall Kenney from
Upperhart were now playing at silver Stream. Danny Bollan, I
think he may have changed clubs, but a couple of
names there. We've got Terry Dean from our club, all
showing a bit of ability. One of the big issues
with the gamers. We've got sixty year olds in our
open side that have been playing representive balls for forty years.
So it's not like a game of rugby you might
(03:22):
have to give up at some.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Stage exactly exactly, all right, looking forward to that and mother,
So you guys be pretty close close neighbors. You'd be
pretty familiar with each team, so I imagine.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
We've played them on a couple of occasions through the year,
so it's it's good we do know a lot of them. Well,
we see them around the traps.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
It's yeah, great stuff, all right, looking forward to that
one tomorrow. And of course the big one that we
often track very regularly through the summer is the inter Club,
which is back underway very shortly, isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It kicking off on the eighteenth? Yes, so double header
on the first weekend. We've got a couple of double
headers this season, not too many. There's always arguments about
whether we have double headers or single leaders, but we're
kicking off with the double header. The Johnsville girls are
the defending champion, so they will feel a fairly strong
side again, I would think. And the Victoria men won
hour in the club last year, always solid that competition
(04:07):
is very highly sought after to be in that premiere grade.
Very good bawls.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Indeed, some other changes in terms of teams.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, we've got making it back into Div one this year,
and the men and woman and why I knew you
have been relegated to Div one, so that's the first
time they've been there for a while. It'll be since
how they.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Go, great and there'll be some interesting matchups I assume
as part of the first couple of rounds.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yes, Victoria's got nine to Oh. They're always two very
top end teams, so they'll be abut to beat each
other badly. Johnsville have got Stokes Valley and I think
Victoria on the day, I'm not sure, but you'll have
to check that draw.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Great, yep, we'll check out that draw. And the divisions
down how are they kind of looking? I know, but
two will be probably talked about a bit.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Two is probably the hardest division to win. I'm saying
that because I plan it, But no, it is good
because it'll have a couple of sides, and there have
been relegated from Premiere the top two bottom sorry, the
two bottom team from Premier Comme added to that year,
so it's always very highly contested.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Great, and further down to five, I say there's been
a slight change there too.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, we've opened up that up to any gender type thing,
mixed teams. So we'd like to get people out on
the green, get as many people out there as we
possibly can. We don't want to restrict people. Some of
the clubs are a bit smaller, some of them are
merging together to make teams, which is we encourage.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Great and I mean you can speak from experience to
be a lot of excitement around the clubs that in
the club's back underway very much.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, awesome Hall of Fame World Bowls. This is pretty cool,
isn't it for our local identities?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yep? Very New New Zealand's had five inductees, which was
Peter ballas Ryan Brassey, which are names from the past,
although both still playing bowls and both playing very well.
Joe Edwards, Val Smith and Sharon Sims on the lady's side,
legends of the game will be remembered forever.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So awesome appointments. Yeah, that's great. Right. Well, we talked
about the rainy weather at the start, and well one
of the great annual events is that ready to roll,
isn't it Where a dozen or so clubs from around
to open the doors last Sunday where they didn't really
come to the party and try and invite new bowlers
into that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Ye. It's a bit frustrating because you know a lot
of clubs are looking for new members and we have
these days to encourage people to come along have a
few bowls and a barbecue and a few beers. The
weather wasn't great, so we will look at rehosting that.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, if people were planning to go along and thought
I'm not going to go all in the rain? Are
club's generally open for people to go and check out.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Ahead or yah by Almas just fronted up. I mean
most clubs will be open three hundred and sixty days
a year, so anytime you're more than welcome.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Great, awesome, and I know you want to put out
a reminder to some people possibly looking at entering the
mixed Peers x Peers.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yes, that's coming up on Labor Weekend. Always a highly
supported event, but I think we're currently sitting around seventy entries,
so we'd love to get that a bit high. I
think we had an entry of eighty four last year,
so it'd be great to beat that.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Wonderful and I know the Bowls Wellington website will have
all that info. Well, Rod, great to catch up, Nice
to have you in the studio and look forward to
chatting all summer. And here's hoping that weather comes right
for club next week or later.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, would be great. Thank you Adam for more from
News Talks ed B listen live on air or online
and
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Keep our shows with you wherever you go with our
podcasts on iHeartRadio,
Let's begin our regular Bowls reports just after seven o'clock
every Saturday, right through the summer months, we do a
full rap of the bowls scene. Joining us for the
reports this summer Bowls Wellington board member Rod Leach, who's
in studio with me this morning. Morning to year. Rod,
thanks for our coming by and being part of the
coverage this season.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Looking forward to it. Adam, thank you for having me
and yeah, let's kick off the.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Season absolutely and hopefully the weather slightly improves too. And
I mean give us a bit of background. Our listeners
love for listening up to these weekly Bowls reports through
the summer months. Tell us a bit about your You're
involvement with bowls and I understand it's been very extensive
over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Very much so. It started back in eighty one, so
been playing for some quite some time. Been on the
board of Bowls Wellington for the last fourteen years and
the Wellington Selected for the last six so and breaking
into another two years of that just coming up. So
for the men's open site great so looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And what's your club?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I played Johnsonville great started an upper hut started apart
back in eighty one, went to Victoria in the mid
nineties when Gary Lawson first came to town, played a
bit with Gary and then moved to Victoria. Sorry to Johnsonville.
Been at Johns Fall since the late nineties.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wonderful and you would have over seen a lot of
different stages and eras of the sport. Where does it
sit now? In your opinion?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It is changing. The type of bowl people use is changing.
I mean I come from the days when you went
three rinks ride to draw a shot. Now we go
straight up the middle. So it's a whole new game. Yeah, okay,
and a lot of more young ones in the game
now too, Yeah, compared to back then.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's always been a growth area, hasn't it a focus area?
So I'm sure that will continue this season as well. Right,
let's talk some of these early season events that are happening,
Rod and tomorrow developments against event against to Montowa two
and this is the Tricks Welsh Trophy. Tell us a
bit about this.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, that's kicking out. That kicks off the representative season
four us. It's been played out of Tawa, so by
all means, if anyone's got a couple of hours, are
trying to kill on tomorrow they can come along and
get into that. We we've now decided to select our
development side. Development is one to ten, but Wellington has
taken the stants that we're now going to pick our
development players from one to five years playing. It doesn't
(02:03):
matter about age. You can be twenty two, one hundred,
you're still a development player for your first one to
ten years. But we're sticking to one to five. We
think personally that if people aren't cutting it after five,
perhaps they they may not be a representative player. But
there's certainly some very very good five to ten players
that should be that we're now looking at it in
the open side.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So cool and how much bearing does this often have
on what lies ahead the season or is it pretty
early to tell just where everyone's at?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Probably early to tell. I mean we do take a
lot on board with results earlier in the season. We've
won the New Zealand Championship for the last three years,
which has been a great result. First time Wellington's ever
done it three years in a row. Only two other
centers in the country have done it three years in
a row in the history of the game. We're hoping
to do a four feet which would be the first ever.
But we saying that the three years we have won,
(02:49):
we've had a different team each year, so we're open
to putting anyone in there. They show us the goods,
so we're happy to have a look at them.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Any names from Wellington you see in these teams for
this one this weekend that you sort of see and
think could be crucial players or once to look out for.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I mean you've got the young Marshall Kenney from
Upperhart were now playing at silver Stream. Danny Bollan, I
think he may have changed clubs, but a couple of
names there. We've got Terry Dean from our club, all
showing a bit of ability. One of the big issues
with the gamers. We've got sixty year olds in our
open side that have been playing representive balls for forty years.
So it's not like a game of rugby you might
(03:22):
have to give up at some.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Stage exactly exactly, all right, looking forward to that and mother,
So you guys be pretty close close neighbors. You'd be
pretty familiar with each team, so I imagine.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
We've played them on a couple of occasions through the year,
so it's it's good we do know a lot of them. Well,
we see them around the traps.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
It's yeah, great stuff, all right, looking forward to that
one tomorrow. And of course the big one that we
often track very regularly through the summer is the inter Club,
which is back underway very shortly, isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It kicking off on the eighteenth? Yes, so double header
on the first weekend. We've got a couple of double
headers this season, not too many. There's always arguments about
whether we have double headers or single leaders, but we're
kicking off with the double header. The Johnsville girls are
the defending champion, so they will feel a fairly strong
side again, I would think. And the Victoria men won
hour in the club last year, always solid that competition
(04:07):
is very highly sought after to be in that premiere grade.
Very good bawls.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Indeed, some other changes in terms of teams.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, we've got making it back into Div one this year,
and the men and woman and why I knew you
have been relegated to Div one, so that's the first
time they've been there for a while. It'll be since
how they.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Go, great and there'll be some interesting matchups I assume
as part of the first couple of rounds.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yes, Victoria's got nine to Oh. They're always two very
top end teams, so they'll be abut to beat each
other badly. Johnsville have got Stokes Valley and I think
Victoria on the day, I'm not sure, but you'll have
to check that draw.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Great, yep, we'll check out that draw. And the divisions
down how are they kind of looking? I know, but
two will be probably talked about a bit.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Two is probably the hardest division to win. I'm saying
that because I plan it, But no, it is good
because it'll have a couple of sides, and there have
been relegated from Premiere the top two bottom sorry, the
two bottom team from Premier Comme added to that year,
so it's always very highly contested.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Great, and further down to five, I say there's been
a slight change there too.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, we've opened up that up to any gender type thing,
mixed teams. So we'd like to get people out on
the green, get as many people out there as we
possibly can. We don't want to restrict people. Some of
the clubs are a bit smaller, some of them are
merging together to make teams, which is we encourage.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Great and I mean you can speak from experience to
be a lot of excitement around the clubs that in
the club's back underway very much.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, awesome Hall of Fame World Bowls. This is pretty cool,
isn't it for our local identities?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yep? Very New New Zealand's had five inductees, which was
Peter ballas Ryan Brassey, which are names from the past,
although both still playing bowls and both playing very well.
Joe Edwards, Val Smith and Sharon Sims on the lady's side,
legends of the game will be remembered forever.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So awesome appointments. Yeah, that's great. Right. Well, we talked
about the rainy weather at the start, and well one
of the great annual events is that ready to roll,
isn't it Where a dozen or so clubs from around
to open the doors last Sunday where they didn't really
come to the party and try and invite new bowlers
into that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Ye. It's a bit frustrating because you know a lot
of clubs are looking for new members and we have
these days to encourage people to come along have a
few bowls and a barbecue and a few beers. The
weather wasn't great, so we will look at rehosting that.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, if people were planning to go along and thought
I'm not going to go all in the rain? Are
club's generally open for people to go and check out.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Ahead or yah by Almas just fronted up. I mean
most clubs will be open three hundred and sixty days
a year, so anytime you're more than welcome.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Great, awesome, and I know you want to put out
a reminder to some people possibly looking at entering the
mixed Peers x Peers.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yes, that's coming up on Labor Weekend. Always a highly
supported event, but I think we're currently sitting around seventy entries,
so we'd love to get that a bit high. I
think we had an entry of eighty four last year,
so it'd be great to beat that.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Wonderful and I know the Bowls Wellington website will have
all that info. Well, Rod, great to catch up, Nice
to have you in the studio and look forward to
chatting all summer. And here's hoping that weather comes right
for club next week or later.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, would be great. Thank you Adam for more from
News Talks ed B listen live on air or online
and
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Keep our shows with you wherever you go with our
podcasts on iHeartRadio,
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