• Graham Dorreen.

Graham's impact on local bowls acknowledged

North Harbour Bowls with Lindsay Knight

Graham Dorreen has only been involved in North Harbour bowls since 2007, but in that relatively short span he has made a contribution and had an impact that few could match, particularly as an administrator and coach.

This was recognised at the recent annual meeting of Bowls North Harbour when he was unanimously proclaimed a life member. The rarity of this honour can be measured from the fact that since the centre’s inception in 1985 life membership has been bestowed on only four others.

Besides the centre, three of its clubs have benefitted from Graham’s dynamic leadership and entrepreneurial skills: Milford, which was his first club; Browns Bay, where he had a brief stint a decade or so ago; and since 2015 Takapuna.

He has served on the management board of each of club and has been Takapuna’s chairman since 2019 and from 2016-19 he was the centre chair.

In each club and with the centre he has left an indelible mark. With the centre he helped establish “Bias,” a fund which provides financial assistance where needed. At Milford he helped start the Milford 5000, still one of New Zealand’s foremost tournaments for junior and intermediate bowlers. At Browns Bay he started the Heartland classic and helped organise the hosting of a successful national championship in 2015.

And at Takapuna he has spearheaded a revamping of the club’s facilities, as well as developing it as one of the country’s foremost clubs, with several national champions and Black Jacks in its ranks. This has been recognised with several local and national “club of the year” awards.

But his greatest passion has been in coaching, an interest which started with his earlier involvement in rugby and cricket. He was especially successful in rugby, coaching the Rangitoto College First XV and being made a life member of its club. With the college and Harbour age group representative sides he coached many who reached representative and even All Black status.

It is in bowls, though, where he has excelled and perhaps has gained his most satisfaction. Much as he values developing tactics and technique, his main fascination has been the mental skills which he sees as essential to high performance success.

His first major bowling success came with the Harbour men’s one-to-eight representatives, who scored back-to-back national titles in 2016-17. That has been followed in recent seasons with top results with the centre women’s representative team and Takapuna’s women’s club side.

In recent seasons he has been the personal coach to Commonwealth Games representative Selina Goddard and now another Games representative, para-jack Lynda Bennett. In six of the last seven seasons he has won Harbour’s coach of the year and has twice been national coach of the year.

His achievements as an administrator and coach, though receiving many awards, may have been at a cost to his own playing deeds. Yet he remains an accomplished player and to the nine club titles he won at Milford he has added two at Takapuna, the mixed triples championship in the past two seasons with wife Anne and Lisa Dickson.

Anne, a superb lead, has enjoyed most of the family’s playing success and has won 13 centre titles as well as a silver medal in the national fours. But Graham shares with her and their good friends, Tim and Rhonda Preston, a rare playing distinction. In the 2010-11 season Graham and Tim won the Harbour men’s one-to-five-year championship and in the same season Anne and Rhona won the women’s title.