Well-known Bay of Plenty journalist Graham Skellern has reported four Commonwealth Games. Now, he has been handed a unique opportunity of leaving the press bench and stepping into the arena of competition.

Graham, who plays out of the Tauranga Bowling Club in the domain, has been named in the New Zealand Para men's pair for the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham, England in late-July.

He is the first Bay of Plenty lawn bowler to be selected for a Commonwealth Games, though three others before him have played in the World and Asia-Pacific Championships.

Graham prepared for the slower greens in England by practising on the manicured croquet lawns at the Mount Maunganui Club and on a specially-prepared rink on the private cricket ground behind his home at Matapihi.

'The slower paced surfaces required an adjustment to my delivery but the hours of practice since last winter worked out fine,” says Graham.

'The lawn bowlers at the Mount complex wondered why I was heading to the croquet lawn to roll up. I'm grateful to the croquet club for allowing me to use their facilities.”

An experienced player of 40 years, Graham was reporting the bowls at the games in Brisbane in 1982 – and decided he could do as well as many of the bowlers he was watching.

He returned home to Wellington, dropped his Karori golf membership and joined the now-defunct Terawhiti bowling club. Within three seasons, he won three senior club titles, the centre junior fours championship and represented the Wellington juniors.

Graham, who moved from Auckland to Tauranga 22 years ago, became immersed in bowls, competing nationally at all levels.

He won three Superbowls singles titles, was a semi-finalist in the New Zealand open championships three times, finished in the last eight and 16 numerous times, and became a long-time inter-centre representative for Counties-Manukau, Bay of Plenty and North Harbour.

His bowling world opened up when Para bowls was added to the Commonwealth Games, and he has won three national disabled titles in the last three seasons.

'When I realised the opportunity, representing New Zealand in bowls became the ultimate dream. I am so excited playing back in England – having spent a season there in Cambridge in the late 1980s – and we have every chance of bringing back a gold medal for New Zealand,” says Graham, a former sports editor and now business writer for the New Zealand Herald.

Graham contracted polio at the age of six months – 'my parents at first didn't know what it was” – and the disease has never held him back.

'I'm just grateful that my polio wasn't worse and that I was able to walk and compete. I'm sports mad and the only time the polio held me back was when I missed out an age-group representative rugby team.

'I was a halfback and I asked the selector why I missed out and he replied: ‘You are too slow getting back to the rucks and distributing the ball'. I guess that was a stark reminder to my disability but it made me more determined.”

At New Plymouth Boys' High, Skellern played cricket and tennis during summer, and rugby in the mornings and soccer in the afternoon during winter. He was in the school first cricket eleven in his final two years, and became the Taranaki junior tennis champion, having spent most of his holidays with friends rallying at the Huatoki Tennis Club.

Three of his mates were sons of successful Taranaki lawn bowlers – Barney Spurdle, Bruce Johns and Doug Rowlands. 'I first got interested in the game when we took a break from tennis and went down to the Paritutu club, peered over the fence and watched the Taranaki Open fours in action,” says Graham.

He also fitted in squash and badminton after-school and started playing golf. But during school hours he sneaked down to the local snooker parlour. One day he was potted in his school uniform and hauled off to the headmaster who threatened him with suspension if he repeated the exercise.

With him in front of the headmaster was his snooker opponent who ended up being Dux of the school.

A news journalism graduate from Wellington Polytechnic, Graham has mixed sports and business writing with competitive bowls. He was the business editor of the Bay of Plenty Times for 12 years. Often, he would have to rush from the bowling green to meet his reporting commitments and deadlines.

There was no time for after-match drinks in the club house to celebrate an enjoyable and competitive day on the green. 'I'm going to make sure there's time for celebration in Birmingham,” says Graham.