Neville Turnbull has made a rich contribution to this club as a player and as an administrator, but especially as an innovator who has contributed enormously to the development of this club to the standing it holds today in the bowling community.
Neville joined the Levin Bowling Club from Central Levin for the 1997-98 season. At Central he had won many club and Manawatu Centre titles and been a Manawatu rep. player as well as their club President. Within a couple of years Neville had become President of this Club, an office he held until 2003 when the Levin Bowls and Recreation Club was formed. He was Chairman and later Treasurer of that club until we reverted back to a bowling club after the Petanque players left in 2003. Since then Neville has served for a virtually continuous period on the club’s Executive and for a number of years as our Green Superintendent and as a club selector for a number of years.
A look at the Honours board will show you that during his 17 seasons at this club Neville has won over 30 club championships over all four disciplines, not counting balloted events, and gone on to claim 15 centre titles and three Centre Gold Stars.
As an administrator he has won a BNZ Badge of Gold in 2001, was Horowhenua Coach and Administrator of the Year in 2002 and Bowls NZ Administrator of the Year in 2003. The citation for the latter award read in part:
“The award was in recognition of the club’s efforts, with Turnbull at the helm, to diversify into other sporting codes, taking on petanque and darts, erecting night lights and an artificial green and actively recruiting younger members all in an effort to boost club membership – all the while advancing the club and the sport of bowls.”
In all Neville has been hugely influential, the driving force, in bringing our club from a summer bowling club with an aging and dwindling membership to a club that offers a year-round programme where our greens are used for over 200 days a year, which has largely contributed to a 20 % increase in our membership over the past five years.
Neville’s most recent achievements have been in working tirelessly for the installation of our Dales green to replace the old Astrograss green in 2010 and in helping turn our cotula green into the envy of the other clubs in our Centre. Neville constantly works for the betterment of bowls and our club.
The photo shows Neville responding after receiving his Life Member’s certificate on 27 September.
