Two of North Harbour’s most successful and decorated bowlers, Colin Rogan from Browns Bay, and Lisa Dickson from Takapuna, achieved significant milestones at the centre’s champion of champions singles last month.
Colin won the men’s singles title, giving him 40 in all and a seventh bar to his gold star, awarded when a player wins five. And Lisa won the women’s title, giving her 25 in all, so adding a fourth bar to her gold star. A fortnight later, Colin went to 41, winning the champion of champions triples with clubmates Neil Fisher and John Walker, which makes adding an eighth bar a distinct possibility. Average-to-good bowlers will appreciate just how special each of these feats is. Most are content to win just one club championship, let alone a centre title.
Making Colin’s fortieth and forty-first titles even more remarkable was that they came at the age of 78, and the singles, especially, were achieved with wins against accomplished and considerably younger opponents. He beat Birkenhead’s Nick Thompson 21-19 in a tightly contested final, and earlier, Beach Haven’s Dean McMurchy, the earlier winner of this season’s championship singles.
Unlike many champion bowlers like Gary Lawson and Rowan Brassey, Colin took up bowls relatively late in life, in his mid-40s at the Mairangi Bay club in 1993. He immediately showed an aptitude for the game with his accurate drawing and control of weight. His breakthrough season came in 1998-99 when he won both the champion of champions fours and singles titles, and since then, there has rarely been a season when he hasn’t won at least one championship. There have been other feats ranking as highly as his centre successes: being in the Harbour inter-centre team which won the national title in 2006, with Browns Bay clubmates Neil Fisher, John Walker and Brian Wilson, and in the 2014 national club fours and five wins in the Professional Bowlers Association’s singles. These have seen him travelling to the United Kingdom to compete in the world indoor championships in 2019 and 2023.
With his 41 titles, Colin is far ahead of anyone else. His clubmate over so many years, Walker now has 32, and the late Brent Turner finished on 29. Both Walker and Turner have been acclaimed North Harbour 'legends', an accolade Colin has yet to accept.
Lisa did take up bowls, unlike Colin, at a young age. From a family steeped in bowls, she was just 17 when she joined Auckland’s Onehunga club with her mum, Iris, and with whom she won her first centre title. She not only has her swag of Harbour titles, but also has an Auckland gold star. In gaining her fourth bar, she joined Ruth Lynch and the late Carole Fredrick, both of whom are also official centre 'legends' as the only women to have reached 25 centre titles.
Still young in bowling terms, and with many seasons in front of her, Lisa has the chance to add further titles and perhaps reach even Colin’s staggering tally. In what has been a vintage season, she has also won the centre pairs and topped all by skipping a Takapuna four of Lauren Mills, Hannah Dawson and Anne Dorreen to the national title. That added to her successes in 2022 when she was in the Takapuna national champion of champions winning fours team, and that team won the national inter-club sevens. She must be near the top of any list of those unlucky bowlers, male or female, to have never been chosen as a Black Jack.
