• Jean Ashby.

Mairangi Bay's Jean Ashby receives lifetime achievement award

Bowls North Harbour with Lindsay Knight

Jean Ashby, one of Bowls North Harbour’s most notable and longest serving officials, was awarded a rare distinction at the centre’s recent annual meeting.

The Mairangi Bay club member was given a lifetime achievement award, a fitting recognition for the colossal contribution she has made in a 50-year plus involvement with the sport. It also added to the other honours which have come her way including life memberships of her club, Bowls New Zealand, the centre’s umpire’s association and membership of the New Zealand Order of Merit, which she was awarded in 2004.

When she started playing bowls in 1967 at Mairangi Bay’s women’s club, following the example of her mother, Jean quickly became a competent player, winning her share of club titles. But the need to resume secretarial work, and the fact that in those years all women’s play was midweek, soon meant a switch in her bowling passion.

In 1976 she received her umpire’s badge and as an umpire she  has become a legend not only within North Harbour but as one of the country’s foremost experts on the game’s playing laws. Her status as an international qualified umpire has seen her achieve some plum roles.

In 1988, in the world women’s championships at Henderson, she marked the singles final between Ireland’s Margaret Johnston and Wales’ Janet Ackland and two years later in the Commonwealth Games at Pakuranga she marked again the women’s singles final between Papua New Guinea’s Geau Tau and New Zealand’s Millie Khan.

This was an especially poignant episode in the history of New Zealand sport as Khan, in being narrowly defeated, played the final only a few hours after her infant grandson had died near the Pakuranga club’s entrance. News of the tragic cot death was kept away from Khan, but she confessed later she suspected something amiss as her normally supportive family were clearly subdued during her match against the ebullient Tau.

Jean has also officiated at several national championships, both men’s and women’s, and after serving as president of the now disbanded New Zealand Women’s Bowls Association, became an independent board member of Bowls New Zealand when there was an amalgamation with the men in the mid-1990s.

She played a major role in introducing the amalgamation which she says was not easily achieved. Many adjustments had to be made and among some clubs there was considerable reluctance. Such had been the division between the genders that Jean recalls a time when women were not allowed in the bars of men’s clubs.

But most of the difficulties have been overcome and Jean now believes amalgamating the men’s and women’s games has been one of bowls’ most positive steps. Once the women’s game was almost entirely built around draw bowling, but by playing so much with men, and being coached by them, has brought a more attacking approach.

Jean’s dad, Jack Lewis, died, one of New Zealand’s soldiers killed at Monte Cassino in World War 11, when she was only nine. So she is grateful that her mum nurtured her great love of sport, which has encompassed not only bowls but a broad range. In her youth she participated in softball, tennis, netball and basketball and in later life was a harrier who in the early 1980s finished a couple of marathons.

She in turn encouraged her own three children into sport, including managing her son’s East Coast Bays soccer team.  Now at 85 and a great grandmother she shows no signs of slowing down, much to the appreciation of North Harbour bowlers.