Peter James Belliss (born 12 November 1951) is a former

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

player for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Background

Belliss was born in

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

in 1951, attending (and playing rugby football at) Wanganui Boys' College. He started playing in the 1970s in the Aramaho (Wanganui) club;

Joseph Romanos Joseph Romanos (born 1957) is a New Zealand journalist, author and broadcaster focusing mainly on sport. Life and career Romanos attended St Patrick's College in Wellington. His father Richie Romanos played cricket for Wellington in the 1951� ...

called him ''The young Turk of lawn bowls''. He had been a railways fitter, and in 1982 was the first New Zealand lawn bowler to turn professional.

Bowls career

At the

World Bowls Championship The World Bowls Championship is the premier world bowls competition between national bowls organisations. The premier indoor event is the World Indoor Bowls Championships listed separately and is organised by the World Bowls Tour. World Outdoor ...

s, Belliss won the 1984 singles in Aberdeen against local player

Willie Wood William Vernell Wood Sr. (December 23, 1936February 3, 2020) was an American professional football player and coach. He played as a safety with the Green Bay Packers in the National Football League (NFL). Wood was an eight-time Pro Bowler an ...

, the 1988 pairs with

Rowan Brassey Rowan James Brassey (born 18 January 1956) is a former New Zealand international lawn and indoor bowls player. Bowls career An earth-moving contractor by trade, Brassey's first national success was the 1980 New Zealand Open Pairs. He went on ...

, and men's triples with Brassey and Andrew Curtain at the 2000 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. He has competed at four

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

(winning bronze),

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

(winning bronze),

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

; missing 1986 as a professional and 1990 as he had played in South Africa five years previously. He won six medals at the

Asia Pacific Bowls Championships The Asia Pacific Bowls Championships formerly the Pacific Rim Championships was a bowls, lawn bowling competition held between national bowls organisations in the Asia Pacific region. The event was inaugurated in 1985, and it was initially held ...

including four gold medals and in 1983 and 1989, he won the

Hong Kong International Bowls Classic The Hong Kong International Bowls Classic is an international lawn bowls competition. It is one of the most prestigious events on the lawn bowls calendar. It started out as a pairs competition for men in 1981, with a singles event added for men ...

singles title. He won the 1981, 1986 and 1992 singles titles, the 1992 and 1995 pairs titles, and the 2009, 2014/15 and 2016/17 fours titles at the

New Zealand National Bowls Championships The New Zealand National Bowls Championships is organised by Bowls New Zealand. Bowls was introduced in New Zealand in 1861 but the first national championships were not held until 1914. Men's singles champions Men's pairs champions Men's fou ...

when bowling for the Aramoho Bowling Club.

Coaching

He was a coach at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

Honours

In the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours, Belliss was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, for services to bowls. In 2013, Belliss was an inaugural inductee into the Bowls New Zealand Hall of Fame.

References

* ''New Zealand’s top 100 sports history makers'' by Joseph Romanos, page 214 (2006, Trio Books, Wellington)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belliss, Peter 1951 births Living people New Zealand male bowls players Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for New Zealand Bowls players at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Bowls players at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Bowls players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Bowls players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from Whanganui Commonwealth Games medallists in lawn bowls Bowls World Champions People educated at Whanganui City College Medallists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games