Fresh goals for award-winning bowls coach

Vince Roper isn’t resting on his laurels after being named New Zealand Bowls Coach of the Year.

It’s the second time he has won the honour, ten years after his first, after moving from Christchurch to Nelson and the Stoke Bowling Club.

But the 75-year-old is much more than just a coach.

He’s also involved with the club’s sponsorship, advertising, signage, membership, ‘have-a go-days’, and a drive to attract desperately needed young blood.

Vince reckons he feels “like a fraud” as he only coaches one player, but Tayla Bruce just happens to be New Zealand’s best and voted women’s Player of the Year for the third time in a row.

Christchurch-based Tayla, ranked third in women’s world bowling standings, is rapt that they were both honoured together this year.

“It is so special. Vince got me in to bowls as a teenager in 2013 and we still have this long distance coaching partnership and bounce ideas around before big events,” Tayla says of her personal coach.

Vince uses the 2023 World Singles Champion’s success as his “promotional tool” to try and convince young people it is not just an old person’s sport.

He went to Broadgreen Intermediate recently and signed up 26 kids, aged between 11 and 18, for a summer bowling course starting at his Stoke club later this month.

“I hate seeing kids with potential unfulfilled. The challenge is to keep them interested, as with peer pressure bowls is not seen as fashionable,” Vince admits.

He brings his former quality systems consultancy skills to his bowling philosophy.

"I don’t like disfunction in organisations. It frustrates me to death.

"My time is better used on people I see having potential, passion and a thirst for learning, as opposed to someone who wants a roll up and the sun on their back," the Stoke Bowling Club Board member states.

That’s why his ongoing role as personal and life coach to Tayla Bruce still means so much to him.

"Tayla is like our Olympic gold medallists Lisa Carrington and Ellyce Andrews in that she’s always searching for betterment. She’s so smart she’s basically self-driven. My role is to understand the person, where they are mentally and what’s happening in their lives,” Vince explains.

The pair will catch up again later this month when Tayla returns to Nelson to defend her doubles title with local star Amy McIlroy at the Stoke Stakes tournament.