High praise for Gisborne-East Coast lawn bowls as Stewart heads south
Stewart, 40, was named Bowls Gisborne-East Coast men's player of the year at the centre prizegiving this month.
Te Karaka Bowling Club, with whom he has won nine centre titles, is opening the club on Saturday for food, drink, bowls and laughs to mark 'Paddy's Day'.
Stewart has been in Gisborne for the past four years and played three seasons of bowls. He worked in kiwifruit orchards for nearly three years and lately has been availability manager at The Warehouse, working nights to ensure the shelves are stocked for the next day.
'I was touring round New Zealand during Covid times, doing some fruit picking, and stopped up here because my grandfather, Harawira Ngata, lives at East Cape,' he said.
'I whakapapa back to Ngāti Porou on my mum's side. She was a Tuhura from Ruatōria. Apirana Ngata was her grandfather's grandfather. On my father's side, we're about eighth-generation colonists.
'I am into a nomadic life of getting to see and experience different parts of New Zealand, going from one extreme to another.'
His next port of call will be Dunedin, where he hopes to catch up with Bowls New Zealand national coach Mike Kernaghan.
'I want to tinker with my delivery, and he is probably the best one I know of to help with that,' Stewart said.
When he arrived in Gisborne, Stewart had played bowls – mainly in Christchurch – for 15 years. He started bowling as a schoolboy in Waikari, North Canterbury, in 1999, but then had eight years off.
He was in his seventh season back on the greens when the 2016 national champs came round. Stewart combined with Kaiapoi clubmates Kerry Becks and Tony Andrews, and Papanui club member Darren Redway, to win the national fours title in Christchurch.
Last year, Stewart travelled from Gisborne to Christchurch to team up with Becks in the Rawleigh's Stewart Buttar Invitation Burnside Pairs, and they won it.
On the local scene this season, Stewart won the men's open pairs alongside David File, and the champion of champions senior men's triples with File and Steve Goldsbury.
He also played in the national intercentre with Malcolm Trowell, Shaun Goldsbury, Steve Goldsbury, Ricky Miller, Andrew Ball, Arthur Hawes and Steve Berezowski.
'Gisborne-East Coast is the second smallest centre [for number of clubs] in New Zealand – Buller is the smallest – but it stretches from Wairoa to Tolaga Bay,' Stewart said.
'The best of the best here are as good as anywhere. The top few are New Zealand-class, but with the small membership, you'll have only one top team per club, whereas the big-city clubs' fourth-tier teams are still strong because they'll have a membership of 150 to 200.'
During his time as a Te Karaka club member, being part of the teams that enabled Steve Goldsbury to win his 50th centre title and David File to win his 90th had been 'a joy'.
'Probably less than a dozen bowlers in New Zealand have 50 centre titles, and David is well out in front with his 90,' Stewart said.
'It would have been lovely to stay longer and help him reach the hundred.'
A highlight of his time in Gisborne was being treated as 'a sort of mentor' in the representative team.
At the national intercentre tournaments, the team had gone close to reaching the quarter-finals in all of the past three years.
He also enjoyed helping the junior team at a mid-year tournament held on the Hastings indoor green. The team had grown in stature from the first day to the second, and if they had started the competition as well as they had finished it, they could have won it.
Being a member of the Tairawhiti bowls community hosting the Aotearoa Māori Bowls (Fours) Tournament in February was an 'amazing experience', Stewart said.
'Being able to host nearly a hundred teams from around the country was a real joy, and I felt a lot of pride that we were able to look after our guests so well.'
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