Pictured: Bill Skelton, former champion jockey rolls down the first ball down at the new bocce courts at the Levin Adventure Park.
Article accompanying the photos:
New bocce courts opened
By Paul Williams
Former champion jockey Bill Skelton marked the grand opening of the bocce courts in Levin at the weekend by rolling down the first ball.
Skelton's first effort at bocce was a good one.
His roll went straight down the middle of the piste like a seasoned professional.
Skelton rode 2156 New Zealand race winners in his career, a feat that seemed impossible to be bettered, and included seven premiership wins and a swag of top races.
The record mark was only surpassed by another champion rider, Lance O'Sullivan, just last season.
A stroke in 1994 has Skelton wheelchair-bound and he and wife Nella were special guests for the opening ceremony.
The two new bocce courts complement the theme of Levin Adventure Park as being a playground for all.
After three years of transporting portable bocce courts to the park a Special Olympics group decided it was time for a more permanent venue.
The mover and shaker behind the new courts was Levin man Bill Wright who said their erection simply meant more people of all abilities being involved in sport.
The beauty of bocce was that it was a bona-fide sport in which people of all abilities could compete.
The opening ceremony also had representative from New Zealand Special Olympics.
Cr Lindsay Burnell declared the courts open and kaumatua Jim Broughton blessed the site with a karakia