BILL Boyley has lived a full life as a businessman, film extra and international sports coach and is looking for one more exciting episode, as Craig Cook reports for the Adelaide Advertiser.

The head of the Philippines lawn bowls team - in town for the Asian Pacific Championships - turned 80 this year and, after eight years overseas has decided to return home to Adelaide to enjoy his "twilight'' years.

"I've had a great time in the Philippines but I told the federation three months ago I would be remaining in Adelaide after this tournament,'' Boyley said.

"Then two months ago I got very ill with bronchitis. It damn near killed me, so now I know I've made the right decision.''

Boyley desperately wanted to stay on in the Philippines until next year's Bowls World Championships, also held in Adelaide, but with three children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren in town, he has the best possible incentive to stay.

His decision to move to the Philippines in 2003 came after the painful break-up of a lengthy relationship.

"I was at a bit of a loose end with what to do with the rest of my life when Jim Cox - one of the best baseball pitchers Australia has ever seen - talked me into going up there,'' he said. "

When I first got there I joined a little bowls club called Coconut Grove, where I became the coach.

"It's given me a special thrill that the three girls playing in our triples team here are all from Coconut Grove.''

The performance of the Philippines - the team made five of eight possible finals in the tournament that concludes tomorrow at Lockleys Bowls Club - has exceeded Boyley's wildest expectation.

Especially as he had fewer than 20 fully qualified players to chose from for the 10-member team.

It's all a far cry from a hit-and-miss business career and a passion for amateur dramatics that had Boyley feature in one of Australia's most famous films.

The former president of the Holdfast Bay bowls club was the marriage celebrant in Scott Hicks' blockbuster movie Shine.

His big moment on celluloid arrived when he married international screen stars Geoffrey Rush and Lynn Redgrave, who played concert pianist David Helfgott and his wife Gillian.

"I don't think I got the role for my dashing good looks as I'm no Errol Flynn,'' Boyley added. "But they thought I had the right sort of face for the part.''

He also had the right credentials to play the pompous and cruel Governor Hindmarsh in a production for the Burnside Players 25 years ago, although renowned critic Harold Tidemann wasn't overly impressed on that occasion.

"Bill Boyley over-plays the role of the brutal Governor Hindmarsh,'' he wrote in his Advertiser review. "Some you win and some you lose'' is Boyley's attitude to life and business.

He sold his business, Custom Built Cycles, and then bought Processed Metals, which made parts for the motor industry, but the early 1980s recession hit him hard.

"Not that I'm complaining - I've had a good life and I'm not finished yet,'' he said.

Caption: Boyley's women's triples team will play off in the championships decider this morning.