Contact details:
dean@bowlsauckland.co.nz
021 025 57484
Born and bred in Tāmaki Makaurau, Dean has a deep connection with the city, its people and the benefits sport brings to the community.
Following a professional cricketing career, Dean has worked extensively in the club and regional sporting body sector, with former roles as GM at Cornwall Cricket Club, and GM, Community at Auckland Cricket.
Although relatively new to the bowling scene, he will follow in his parent’s footsteps (members of the Mahurangi East Bowling Club) and immerse himself in the local bowling scene, meeting and gaining perspective from as many people as possible.
Dean believes that bowls is a truly unique and special sport, that can unite and celebrate all people within Tāmaki Makaurau and looks forward to working with everyone to deliver great bowling experiences.
Contact details:
accounts@bowlsauckland.co.nz
Michael spends the majority of his days crunching numbers! If it’s not with Bowls Auckland as Finance Manager, you’ll find him scoring cricket matches for NZ Cricket and in the Graphics section of television broadcasts. In addition, he has a voluntary role as Treasurer for The Black Grace dance company.
He has lived in Auckland his whole life, graduating with a BCom/GradDipCom from the University of Auckland after four years of study from 2002 to 2005. Since then, Michael has worked in a variety of Accounting and Financial Management roles with many of those years being in a self-employed capacity and a great mix of small to medium-sized companies and non for profit organisations.
Outside of work he’s a sports nut and loves the NRL as a diehard supporter of the Bulldogs. He also enjoys travelling, walks and a good TV series.
Contact details:
leah@bowlsauckland.co.nz
021 073 8326
Born and bred on the North Shore, I have two little girls that like to keep me on my toes!
While studying for a Bachelor of Sport and Recreation at AUT, I found my passion for community sport and how powerful the impact of connecting through sport can be to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
My earlier roles in other sports, both regional and national bodies, have helped me gain an understanding of how other sporting codes operate.
I've not played bowls before but very keen to learn new things!
Contact details:
les@bowlsauckland.co.nz
021 609 611
Born in Gisborne but raised in Auckland sport was big in her family and Les has actively participated in netball, basketball, tennis, athletics and bowls (for over 40 years). One way or another Les has been involved coaching sport since her late teens starting with coaching junior netball and when qualified as a teacher specialising in, physical education, coaching a wide range of sports largely mainstream.
A career change found Les in Human Resources and Employee Development roles which involved coaching and developing employees particularly management. This honed coaching the ‘soft skills’ – those involving relationships, culture and team work.
In recent years Les has completed a two-year coaching course with Bowls NZ, a two-year course with HPSNZ called Core Knowledge and a Sport NZ coach development course. For several years, Les coached the Counties Junior Men and Women’s representative teams. This season Les has moved to the Howick Bowling Club and is involved in their coaching programme as well as coaching some individual athletes.
Contact details:
roz@bowlsauckland.co.nz
021 191 4040
Once a keen and active sportsperson, until sporting injuries took hold, Roz’s sporting participation is now from a fan perspective. Although, her fellow Bowls Auckland teammates are encouraging her to become a bowler.
Roz has extensive experience within a successful NZX50 corporate delivering end-to-end customer experiences through corporate publications, internal communications, customer relations, project and brand management.
Contact details
brendon@bowlsauckland.co.nz
022 357 3860
My professional expertise has seamlessly crossed over into bowls administration and running tournaments. I was able to take my volunteering efforts in the bowls community and turn them into a career at Bowls Taranaki, Bowls NZ, and now this exciting opportunity at Bowls Auckland.
My passion for bowls drives me to excellence both as a player and an administrator. I take a very player-focused approach; I understand the wants and needs as a keen bowler myself. While I do enjoy the odd gala day or tournament when I can, my time is now focused on delivering a successful calendar, collaborating with clubs and players to evolve the sport.
Contact details:
convenor@bowlsauckland.co.nz
021 1872 933
Weng started his bowling at Henderson Bowling Club in May 2009, after attending a ‘Have-A-Go’ day one afternoon. He got hooked straight away and bought a new set of bowls a couple of days later! He participated at the Winter Coaching for 1-5 Years at the North-West zone under ABCA for five years after that and continued to help the coaches out for the next two. Feeling insufficiently equipped, he completed the Bowls New Zealand coaching course and became a qualified coach in 2016. He continued to do the Winter Coaching and was the Convenor for Central zone for the 2022 season.
Another important aspect of lawn bowls is umpiring. Weng qualified as a Bowls New Zealand Level 1 Umpire in August 2015 and achieved Level 2 status two years later. Weng could be seen often on the greens officiating, be it at the club, Centre or national levels. One of the highlights of his umpiring career was being picked to officiate at the World Bowls Champion of Champions Singles event in November 2022 in Wellington.
Weng had been a member of the Operations Committee, and Match Convenor of both Henderson Bowling Club and Blockhouse Bay Bowls where he is a member now. He is an Executive Member and one of the tutors for new umpires of the Auckland Bowls Umpires’ Association.
Contact details:
convenor@bowlsauckland.co.nz
027 451 1802
Les has been part of the lawn bowls scene for more than 36 years, with a vast experience as an umpire, a coach, a tutor, a Tournament Convenor, and a Match Committee member.
Starting his career at East Tamaki in 1987, he became an umpire in 1999 and passed his initial International Umpires accreditation in 2008.
Since then, he has volunteered as an official at numerous World, Trans-Tasman, Eight Nations, and Asia Pacific, Oceania Championship tournaments over many years. A career highlight was umpiring and marking at the 2016 World Championships held in Christchurch, rubbing shoulders with ITOs from around the world.
Elected as President of the Auckland Umpires Association for 2023-2024, his involvement with the Association spans more than 10 years, including as a tutor. Les is currently a team official for the 1-5 Year representative side.
Alastair is a communications expert having worked in advertising in Auckland and then employer branding (advertising for careers) in London. He went over to the UK for a 2-year OE, loved it and stayed for 28!
Alastair works at Royal Oak Bowls for 20 hours. His role at both clubs involves growing participation be that corporately or socially using a range of marketing techniques. He also runs two social bowls events at Royal Oak and has been responsible for creating the fantastically successful Friday Night Twilight Social Bowls 3Five League at Bridge Park where a stonking 32 teams are playing.
Alastair’s also a keen social bowler himself now using ‘modern’ bowls that are only 40 years old as opposed to the 80-year-old bowls from his grandfather that he was using.
Cynthia Morris is our Bowls Development Officer for Kohimarama Bowling Club. She moved to Auckland from Boston MA where the bulk of her career was in the not-for-profit sector, including business associations, university and tertiary alumni associations, and events and communications.
Since joining the regional Auckland bowling community, Cynthia has focused on communications to better engage members and sponsors. Working with its dedicated board and volunteers, KBC has nearly doubled its membership with a focus on delivering coaching, bowls skills, and community.
Cynthia enjoys baking, participating (when allowed to) in her teenagers’ lives, and keeping up with favourite sport teams in the States.
Cynthia holds a BA in English and Psychology from Wellesley College, Boston MA USA.
Analiese has been the Bowls Development Manager at the Auckland Bowling Club since September 2020.
She has been involved with the club for many years in various roles, following tertiary study, including events, marketing and promotions while partaking in bowls tournaments. This has given her a great insight to the inner workings of this historic bowls club!
Auckland Bowling Club has become a ‘home base’ for her and her family, as they are too members and are very enthusiastic about the sport of lawn bowls.
Analiese looks forward to continuing great work with the Auckland Bowling Club and bringing bowls to the forefront of NZ sport.
Darren is a storyteller whose experience volunteering with arts groups in his hometown of Christchurch led to employment in a variety of arts and education venues in UK, including at Dartington Trust, Devon.
The public relations, communications, and IT skills these roles forged are now helping to raise Glen Eden Bowling Club’s profile in the local community, where his activities range from website development to welcoming groups of novice bowlers to their new favourite pastime.
Alongside work and caring for family he found time to appear as “Opposition Senator” in series 2, episode 5 of the Netflix series Roman Empire.
