The Star: January 31, 2019

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24 Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Thursday January 31 2019 Our People The Star Gary Lawson Irrepressible bowls legend is back One of the country’s most successful and controversial bowls players Gary Lawson has been selected in the New Zealand squad for the first time in a decade. He talks to Julia Evans about looking to the future How old were you when you started playing bowls? I used to chuck them down when was about five, but I didn’t actually join a club until I was 21 or 22. I played my first nationals in 1986 and that was the first year I played. How did the older players feel about being beaten by a young guy like yourself? No. There were a few young guys, a few of us that started at the same time, at the same age. Now there’s heaps of them, there’s heaps of young fellows and young girls. Only a couple of years ago, for example, the Australian woman’s team was younger than the Australian men’s cricket team. I reckon it’s a young person’s game that old people can play. You’ve got quite a strong background in sport, you were a good young tennis player and a rugby first five. I went alright, but I was a yard too slow and about 10kg too light to be a good rugby player. I played senior rugby for Merivale for a number of years. But my father was a New Zealand champion bowls player, he won the singles in 1968. It was always going to be something I ended up playing. I played a lot of rugby and tennis first. Once I knew I was not going to be an All Black or play tennis for New Zealand, which I knew really young, I wanted to play bowls for New Zealand. I played a little bit of indoor bowls; it was something I was reasonably handy at right from the start and I just got into it really. I was never a superstar rugby player or tennis player but I just loved it. I just loved the camaraderie of playing rugby TOP OF HIS GAME: Gary Lawson never gave up his dream of playing bowls for New Zealand again while establishing his sports bar, the Horse and Jockey. PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER – I think most New Zealand blokes do, don’t they? How did you feel getting named in the New Zealand squad for the first time in a decade? It’s like getting picked for the first time, really, especially after 10 years. You kind of think every year you miss out is a year that it’s getting tougher to get back in, but you never really gave up the dream. It was probably just a dream for a long time, I’ve been given a lifeline and it’s up to me to take it. I’m looking forward to it, it’s a lot of hard work. I’ve always said getting picked for New Zealand is fantastic, but that’s when the work starts. I don’t want to just play, I want to be a great player for New Zealand. How did you find out that you’d been selected? I was at the airport in Nelson, only a week or so ago, and I had just spent the weekend there with my daughter Gemma. Kaushik Patel, the high performance manager for Bowls New Zealand rang me and said congratulations, you’re in the squad. It was pretty cool. We didn’t really do much to celebrate, just jumped on the plane and came home. What are you going to bring to the team this time? I know this is a pretty cliché word, but I think the experience is one thing and the fact that I’ve been there before. I think I can bring some mental toughness and probably the reading of the game. I think I’m reasonably astute at that now, you get better over time at knowing what shot to play, what shot not to play. You’ve got to play to your strengths. BRODIE & FITZY SWITCH IT UP WEEKDAYS 6 – 9AM 97.7 thehits.co.nz
The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Thursday January 31 2019 25 on the green for New Zealand Hopefully I bring a good training ethic, once I’m in these situations I like to think I train hard and practice hard. That’s probably good for me, it keeps me on track. I like training and I like practicing. It’s like the old saying, you don’t win the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November. It’s all in your preparation. You’ve only got to listen to Steve Hansen and Richie McCaw, it’s all about preparation. You can turn up without preparing and you might get lucky, but you take a lot of that luck out of it if you train well. How often do you train now before a tournament? Leading into a tournament I put a lot more effort into it than if I’m not. Getting this recall with New Zealand, I’ll manage my training. When I first started, I would train for four or five hours a day. Now, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. I quite like practicing early in the morning. I can turn up at quarter to six, six o’clock in the morning, but only spend 45, 40, 50min, depending, and achieve as much as I used to in three or four hours. It’s about being out there with a bowl and just doing it, more about getting timing, rhythm and stuff like that. That’s fine. I go to Les Mills, I’ll probably spend a lot more time there in the next six to 12 months. That part of it is PRO: Gary Lawson bowls for New Zealand in the 2008 world championships at the Burnside club. PHOTO: KEN BAKER probably more important for me, just getting as fit as I can before the long days. When you go away for a couple of weeks, you’re up at six and you’re not off the greens until half past six at night. She’s a long day. I think if you’re fit, that does help big-time at the end of the day. What makes Gary Lawson tick? I love life to be fair. You want to be successful at what you do, you’ve got to work hard at it. For me, I don’t spend a lot of time at the Horse and Jockey (Lawson’s sports bar in Upper Riccarton). I come in and do the pokies in the morning, spend a couple of hours helping out when they’re busy. I don’t spend more than two or three days at the bar. We’ve got an asbestos removal company as well with another mate of mine. So we’re working on that, doing a bit of work in Wellington this year. I did a bit of work with Fletchers and EQC during the earthquakes. The next few months are going to be busy, I’ve got a lot of bowls. My day’s going to be about getting up, training, coming in here and making sure everyone is happy. So it’s a busy life but it’s all about time management. I actually love being busy, I hate just sitting around doing nothing. I think my brain’s always ticking over. There will never be a day where I don’t think about getting the chance to play for New Zealand. It might be in the shower, I might be doing the pokies, doing anything. It’s always in the back of my mind and I don’t think it ever goes away. When you don’t have it, you appreciate it. The 10 years went pretty quick but you just have to accept it. It wasn’t something that chewed away and ate me up. I knew that some things had to change before I had any chance of getting back in. They changed and once they changed, I thought well here’s my chance. What changed? I think everyone knows. One man in particular, but I’m not going to go into that, I’m not even going to mention his name. It’s history. For me, it’s about moving on, a new start. •Turn to page 26
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The Star: January 31, 2019

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