Smith overcomes challenges
VAL Smith overcame some challenging times to play a key role in the South team at the interisland tournament at the Dunedin Lawns Bowls Stadium at the weekend.
Dealing with slow greens at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was followed by evacuation from her Nelson home during the region’s recent weather bomb.
Smith appeared at home on the rinks of the Dunedin stadium, playing a key role in the South beating the North 1812.
For the past two decades, Smith has been a firstchoice selection for Bowls New Zealand teams, and with lifelong friend Jo Edwards proved a lethal combination in pairs competition around the world.
Coming to terms with slow greens in Birmingham had been a challenge, and Smith still did not feel as though her timing had quite returned yet.
“You find yourself still not trusting the speed of the green,” she said.
“It feels good but you’re heavy and you’re still not quite sure on how much speed to take off.”
Training camps being interrupted by Covid also challenged the New Zealanders as they practised on slower croquet greens to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.
Smith joined Selina Goddard,
Tayla Bruce and Nicole Toomey to win bronze in the fours, as she did with the team at the 2014 Glasgow Games.
Smith’s pathway into bowls came when she and Edwards made the transition from softball.
The two quickly made a formidable pairs combination, nationally and internationally.
“We had entered in a sports allrounder run by the Nelson City Council, where you had to compete in 17 different sports over one month.
‘‘Out of those 17 sports, there were only three sports that I had never had a go at, and one of them was lawn bowls.’’
Bitten by the bowls bug, Smith was further encouraged by her boss at the time, Allan Giffiths.
“I was just fascinated with the game. To me, it seemed just a simple concept but it was such a difficult thing to do.”
A Nelson business house social league followed in which Smith and Edwards participated, combining bowls with A grade softball.
Bowls eventually won out as the two embraced the sport as a fulltime pursuit, and national selection followed.
Smith has now won six national titles, five Commonwealth Games medals and six world championship medals (two gold, two silver and two bronze).
“Another two gold would be nice,” she said when asked about next year’s world championships.
But if there is one thing Smith does not take for granted, it is the selection process.
“When I was first selected for transtasman competition in 2003, it was Jan Khaan that missed out. But later, for the AsiaPacifics it was me that missed out, and Jan was selected.
‘‘Sadly, the day before the AsiaPacific Games were to start, Millie Khaan passed away. So Jan had to come back to New Zealand and I was called back to replace Jan.”
Smith has since remained one of the first names on the selectors’ sheet, and has played alongside the who’s who of women’s bowls in New Zealand.
“In bowls, we don’t get to go to the Olympic Games, but with world championships and Commonwealth Games, it doesn’t get much better.
‘‘They’re pinnacle events. To compete in them is what dreams are made of.”