BOWLS: Blind bowler sees the light

24th November 2007

ANENDRA SINGH

IT'S FAIR to say that the forecast was pretty bleak for Keith Bell in England.

But a decade ago Bell, from Suffolk, "saw the light" when he arrived in New Zealand to play bowls in Hamilton. A blanket of gloom was lifted from the former England blind bowls team representative's eyes during the 1997 world championship.

"If you've got visual impairment then the light here is very different from the UK. It is much lighter here and the air is cleaner, so you can see better," Bell tells SportToday as he takes time out from his training schedule at the Havelock North Bowling Club on a balmy day. He will be competing in the B2 grade of the four-day New Zealand Blind Lawn Bowling National Tournament starting at the club soon after the opening ceremony at 8.45am on Monday. Among the guests will be National MP Craig Foss, Hawke's Bay Bowling Association president Margaret Hurrelbrink and Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule.

Speaking from the shade of his wide-brimmed hat, under blue skies on a near 30C day, Bell hastens to add that the other reason for eventually settling in Hawke's Bay was because of the people and the beauty of the country.

"This place is a paradise on the planet and you don't want to tell too many people that because then they will all want to come here," he says with a grin.

"The grey days [in Britain] were quite depressing but I had to stay there because I couldn't shirk my responsibilities," says the retired engineer, who ran his own business, manufacturing engine parts.

The Havelock club member, who will be competing against 30 other blind bowlers from around the country, hails the culture that exists at the friendly club and pays tribute to blind tourney sponsors, such as Mainstreet European in the Bay. "I think it's one of the most progressive clubs in the country. The membership is static while it's dwindling elsewhere."

Prone to illness as a youngster, contact sport was out of the question for Bell, who took up bowls from the time he was 17 years old, thanks to his late father, Hubert.

Swimming was his other passion. Modesty gets in the way but he eventually reveals that he won the English blind bowls championship twice and represented his country in the world champs in Canada and also in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Meticulous and a perfectionist in his trade, Bell was a "hands-on" boss who inspired his 45 employees at his factory.

But one day, 35 years ago, he was measuring the size of a component and noticed there was a discrepancy between his reading and those of his employees.

"I went to an optician and later to a doctor and they explained to me what was happening. I took it pretty badly." Bell suddenly had to come to terms with the fact that he couldn't drive, watch TV or read a newspaper and that "hits you pretty bad".

But a resilient Bell's quest to become a better man saw him "get on with life".

"Can you imagine a blind man who is the boss of 45 men in a factory making sure that everything was right.

"I had to read drawings but soon I had to put my trust in other people to make those vital decisions.

"I had my ups and downs but I came out good. I was quite a stickler for things to be right and it was a hard thing to stomach."

Bell doesn't waver when asked if he thinks he would have preferred being blind from birth to gradually losing his sight.

"It's better to have had vision and to lose it, than to never have had it at all."

Since losing his sight, he had honed his other senses that helped compensate for the loss of vision, to the extent that he can vouch for other visually impaired who are capable of "picking up vibes" around others.

"People are often embarrassed around the blind. They shouldn't be because the blind aren't embarrassed when they talk about their vision problems."

His memory has become sharper with basic tasks such as going up and down a flight of stairs now stored away in the recess of his mind with loads of details other people are oblivious to or take for granted.

Bell says wife Marion is the pillar of strength in his life. "I couldn't do things without her. How she puts up with me I don't know," he says as Marion waits patiently on a bench a few metres away.

Sporting a mischievous grin, Bell leans closer and whispers: "She must love me."