As a club Levin has not had an active playing member selected to represent New Zealand in its first century of existence. However, two players who were members of our club have played for New Zealand. In 1927 was invited to send a team of bowlers to visit England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Britain Canada (British Columbia) and the USA (Southern California). Applications were sought from every club for the team. Thirty six men were nominated and all were accepted. While the team could then not be considered a selected national team there were many top players in the team. Among them was Levin’s Matthew Suhan (pictured). Originally from Canterbury he had won the Club’s singles championship three times in succession from 1924-25 to 1926-27 and in two of those seasons won the Manawatu Champion-of-Champions singles as well as two fours.
What followed was a quite extraordinary tour. As well as the 36 men there were 20 wives and three sons in the party. They left Wellington on 10 February 1928 and played some friendly games in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth before sailing from Fremantle on the Orvieto. They landed in Toulon in the south of France and enjoyed a month long tour of the continent before starting the bowls tour in Folkstone, England in April. Over the next six months they played 95 matches in six countries, winning 50 of them, before arriving back in Auckland on 4 November.
The only selected New Zealand representative to have been a club member was W.H. (Bill) Hampton. While a member of the Naenae club in the Hutt Valley as a leading bowler in the Wellington Centre he was selected to lead the four at the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff. A decade late he was playing at Levin and won the men’s open singles in 1969-70. Later he joined Levin RSA.
Matthew Suhan in 1929