A lot of bowlers must have been googling after the final of the National Open Men’s Singles Championship in Auckland recently … to find out who the heck ‘Matt Berry’ was.

And with good reason.

Usually the winner of the National Open Singles emerges from the proverbial cream: Aiden Takarua in 2024, Sheldon Bagrie-Howley in 2023, Kelvin Scott in 2022, Mike Galloway in 2021 … you get the picture.  But ‘Matt Berry’?

‘I had a lot of self-belief during the tournament,” explains Matt.  “Even though I lost my first two qualifying games and had to win the rest, I knew I could do it.  Not necessarily that I would, but I could.”

That meant Matt had to win the next 12 games in a row!  It was a BIG ask.

“I played Keanu Darby in the final,” recalls Matt,  “I imagine I was a huge underdog,  But at the start I got out to a 5-nil lead.  I thought it was over when Keanu then went ahead 9-5.  But I came back to win 21-17.”

“The semi against Liam Hill should’ve been the final.  It was a real tough game.  The heads were really tight, and I had to play phenomenal shots to beat him.  It was close all the way.  Near the end I got a 3 with a pretty jammy shot, and went ahead 19-16.  And that laid the way for a 21-16 win.”

“In the quarters I played Hoefty (Steve Hoeft).  To be honest, I don’t think that either of us were playing our best bowls, but I ended up with the win (21-14).”

It was a remarkable effort for a bloke that’s only been playing bowls for 13 years, and has never won a Centre title.  In any other sport, you would suspect he was taking something ‘performance-enhancing’.

“No.  Nothing like that.  Unless you count dragonfruit, Up & Go, and the eggs benedict at Gloria Jeans café in Henderson!”

The performance-unenhanced Berry is known in Auckland circles … not so much for his bowls prowess (which is good), but because he’s been round the traps a fair bit.

“I’m known as the ‘gypsy bowler’,” he laughs.  “That’s probably because I’ve belonged to a few clubs in Auckland.”

“I started off at Birkenhead.  My then boss, Greg Utting, got me into bowls.  He was President of Birkenhead at that time.  I loved it.  I couldn’t stop bowling.  And the beers were cheap!”

“I moved on to New Lynn … then Point Chev … Central … Onehunga District … and Blockhouse Bay.  And although I represented Blockhouse Bay in the Nationals, I’ve moved to Pringle Park because it’s closer to home.”

“To be honest, I can be hard to handle.  I’m very competitive … I like to win.  And I’m very social … I enjoy more than a few beers!  My junior years are a bit of a blur.  But I’ve cut back on the booze.”

Matt’s partner is Leah Morgan.  They’ve been together nearly 3 years and she’s probably helped him settle down … at least a little bit!

Matt affectionately refers to her as ‘the Cougar’.  She’s on the bar staff at Blockhouse Bay, and probably doesn’t stand for any nonsense there either.

While Leah bar manages, Matt’s day job is as a painter.

“I just work casually,” he says. ”So I can pick and choose when I want to work and when I want to play bowls.  I’m actually a qualified chef, and used to work at the Stafford Road Wine Bar in Northcote.  But painting on a casual basis suits me better.”

That means he’ll be free to represent New Zealand in the World Men’s Champion of Champion in September this year … the winner of our National Open Singles is automatically invited to that tournament.

Unfortunately for Matt, they’re not at an exotic locale this year.

“They’re in a place called Barham, right on the border of Victoria and New South Wales in Australia,  We fly in to Melbourne (his dad and Leah are accompanying him), and I think it’s about a three hour drive up to Barham.”

Barham may be in the wops of Australia, but the local club, CluBarham is far from ‘wop-like’.  Forget the spelling and pronunciation of the club name (yes, you read it right), and instead take a peek at the facilities totally refurbished In 2022, and the two world-class 9-rink artificial greens at www.clubarham.com.au.

It’s pretty flash.

Who knows … Matt may even get a haircut for the occasion.  Nah.  We like our new bowls ‘wild man’ just the way he is.

Congratulations, Matt.  We look forward to seeing much, much more of you.