Takapuna’s vintage 2020-21 season was recognised at Bowls North Harbour’s annual awards function when it was proclaimed the centre’s club of the year.

The club achieved many successes, both on and off the green, but the honour was due in large measure, at least in a playing sense, to the exploits of several members, especially the Black Jack international Selina Smith.
She might not have matched her 2019-20 feats when she was twice a national champion, but still had a stellar season and won North Harbour’s top individual accolade in being named its supreme bowler of the year.
She finished runner-up in two national championships, the pairs and fours, made the semi-finals of the national champion of championship singles, won both of the centre’s women’s singles titles and was in Takapuna’s winning women’s teams in both pennants and sevens.
At the one-to-five years levels a newcomer to the club, Skye Renes, had a record that was almost as impressive and she was proclaimed the centre’s young bowler of the year. She won the centre’s one-to-five singles, was runner-up in the champion of champion singles and was skip in winning the “any combination” one-to-five pairs from a field which included several promising male bowlers.
In just her third year in the game she also won her first open centre title, playing at lead with Wendy Jensen, Anne Dorreen and Trish Hardy when Takapuna won the champion of champion fours.
It was especially memorable season for the club’s women’s players. A powerhouse line-up of Smith, Jensen, Dorreen, Lisa Parlane, Robyne Walker, Adele Ineson and Connie Mathieson comfortably won the centre sevens inter-club title, then finished a commendable second in the national final, beaten only by a strong Nelson side. Ineson and Walker also made the national pairs quarter-finals.
Just how competitive Takapuna’s women’s bowlers have become was illustrated in the club’s singles final, which was contested by two internationals in Smith and Jensen.
The club’s male bowlers were far from overshadowed, though. John Janssen and Jerry Belcher won the centre’s champion of champion pairs title and Jeremy Brosnan, Bevan Smith and Ian Hardy won the centre’s Dick Bree triples championship. In national championships Smith, Brett O’Riley and Graham Skellern were highly placed.
Other successes included winning the Harbour 3-5 competition and a double for men and women in the centre pennants.
As a coach, chairman of the club’s board, Graham Dorreen, has inspired much of the women’s success and as an administrator, he has helped revitalise the club, overseeing much of the refurbishment which has enhanced the club-house and the outside facilities. His management, plus a prudent treasurer, Connie Mathieson, enabled the club to have an excess surplus on its operations of more than $72,000. And in a reversal of what is the trend in most sports codes, the club membership, instead of declining, has increased to nearly 200.
For the fifth time Dorreen was named Harbour’s coach of the year, with the administrator of the year award going to the club’s retiring secretary Robyne Walker, who was recently elected to the centre board and for the new season will take over as Takapuna’s president. This award especially recognised her role in directing the club’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two other Takapuna members were honoured at the Harbour awards for their contribution to the game in general. Sue Rossiter, often seen on television’s bowls coverage, was made umpire of the year for the third year and the writer of this article as centre publicity officer was given a lifetime achievement award.
Dorreen, however, points out that while successes at the top level have been important, equally significant for the club has been its community role in catering for the recreational roll-up bowler. “Our board mantra this year was to embrace change, adapt and respect the past,” he says. “I believe we have fulfilled this.”
Other centre award winners were Bart Robertson (Helensville), male bowler of the year; Ron Cowper (Helensville), volunteer of the year; Matthew Higginson (Orewa), male one-to-five year bowler of the year; Jenny Daniels (Orewa), official of the year;  Lesley Langer (centre secretary- events manger), President’s Cup; Norman Klaassen (Manly), life-time achievement award); and Brendon Kelly, green-keeper of the year.
Another highlight of the awards function was the induction of three outstanding bowlers, Ivan Kostanich, Brent Turner and Carole Fredrick, sadly all of whom have passed away, into the centre’s official “Legends”.
Though most of Kostanich’s remarkable feats, including three national titles, were within the Auckland centre, before the formation of North Harbour, he has been always identified with the celebrated Helensville club.
Turner was always a Harbour stalwart, playing for the Silverdale, Orewa, Browns Bay and Helensville clubs, and winning 28 centre titles, as well as being in the Harbour representative side which won the national inter-centre championship in 2005.
Fredrick, too, was involved with several Harbour clubs, but latterly with Birkenhead, with whom she was especially proud to have won the second of her national titles with her club-members  rather than as a compositive. Like Turner, she finished with a swag of centre titles (27).