Gordon Jolly

Gordon Hezlam Jolly (25 May 1913 to 26 October 1986) was a lawn bowls competitor for New Zealand. Born in Cromwell, he was the son of Ernest Jolly, mayor of Cromwell, and his brother Noel Jolly was also a noted bowler. He began playing at the Meadowbank Bowling Club in Oamaru, joined the Leith Bowling Club in Dunedin in 1946 and went on to win 18 Dunedin centre titles. At the 1966 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Sydney he won the men's fours with Norm Lash, Ron Buchan and Bill O'Neill. He won the 1970 New Zealand national fours title and, at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games, took the men's fours gold medal with David Baldwin, Kerry Clark and John Somerville. A life member of Bowls New Zealand, he served as a national selector and president in 1968, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and was an inaugural inductee into the Bowls New Zealand Hall of Fame in 2013.