Bagrie-Howley is enjoying his best year in bowls. In March, he was in the team that gave Southland its first National Men s Intercentre tournament win in the event s 51-year history. That team was named Team of the Year at last Friday’s ILT Southland Sports Awards in Invercargill. Funding from the Mataura Licensing Trust and being able to get time off from employer, Croydon Aircraft Company, when bowling commitments arose, had helped Bagrie-Howley’s progress in the sport. Some high performance training camps would concentrate on adapting to the much-slower English greens, Bronwyn Stevens, of Otapiri, said. To do that, training will be done on croquet greens. Bowls officials believe croquet greens provide similar surfaces to UK bowling greens.