From local government leadership and sporting excellence to dedication to education and rescue efforts, five Nelson locals have been recognised in this year’s New Year Honours. Today, we are bringing you their stories.
Lawn bowls champion Val Smith was shocked to be nominated to become an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours List – and equally honoured to accept the recognition for decades of service to the sport.
What is surprising is that it took so long coming for the Nelson 60-year-old.
Val retired from the international game early last year after representing New Zealand a record 667 times.
She started out as a footballer, a midfielder good enough to be in the national squad for six and a half years.
After rupturing her ACL, Val turned to bowls and got serious about her new sport at 27.
And she turned out to be seriously good, going to five Commonwealth Games.
Val secured one silver and three bronze medals and fared even better at her five World Bowls Championships.
“The highlight was winning two gold medals, in the singles and the pairs, at the 2008 Worlds in Christchurch,” declares the former Blackjack.
She also won eight gold titles at the national bowls championships, even coming home from Sydney in 2019 to claim her fifth title and the gold star that went with it.
Val spent six and a half years with the Merrylands Club before returning to Nelson in 2021.
Her New Zealand honour follows on from being inducted into the World Bowls Hall of Fame last year.
2025 was a year of changes for Val.
After being made redundant from her recruitment role at a Nelson employment agency, she became a sports coordinator at Nayland College.
Once the fourth term finished, Val showed she was a dab hand off the bowling greens as well.
“I have been water blasting and painting at the school,” says the former Nelson College for Girls student.
She also had her first winter off playing bowls.
“I went to see a Madness tribute band in Christchurch and started playing pickle ball.”
Her team included lifelong friend and former bowls playing partner Jo Edwards.
“I don’t know whether we are any good at that yet. I have a knee problem, but I can still scamper around the court and the greens.”
While she isn’t pounding the footpaths, the Nelson Bowling Club star has “made up” her own home gym and still does a lot of push-ups.
Rather than rest on her new honour, she is heading to Christchurch for the national bowls champs later this week where she is competing in the singles and pairs.
