National Intercentre

16-19 March 2023

Auckland's Premier 1 representative team travelled to Christchurch for the 2023 National Intercentre. The Women drew the first straw starting their campaign on Thursday, whereas the Men did not commence theirs until Friday.

The first day at Fendalton Bowling Club proved to be a bit of a challenge for the Women's teams - the greens were quite heavy. Auckland came away in the top position, this continued throughout the week playing at Rangiora and Riccarton. Then back to Burnside in a hurry on Saturday to play the first round of post-section. They beat Counties, 2-1.

Sunday morning, we came up against North Harbour in the semi-final, rounding that match off 2-1. Linda Ralph beat Selina Goddard, Olivia Bloomfield & Paris Baker went down to Elaine McClintock & Millie Nathan, and the Fours; Lisa Prideaux, Estelle Hickey, Catherine Bien & Ashleigh Jeffcoat took the match quite convincingly. 

Auckland had no reason to change any team members around throughout the week as each individual player was in top form playing outstanding bowls. Then came the final on Sunday afternoon against Nelson, with four current and past Blackjacks in their line-up.

What a nail-biting match that turned out to be. Linda Ralph narrowly missed beating Jo Edwards. Olivia & Paris were defeated by Val Smith & Colleen Earl by a large margin, and the Fours narrowly missed what would have created an extra end by a minute measure.

Congratulations to our team for an outstanding performance to head home with the silver medal.

The Men performed well throughout the week with some outstanding performances, which just saw the team pipped at the post by 1 point to miss progressing into the semi-final. It was a mighty battle right to the end against Southland. Once again, we saw some excellent individual bowling from the players, and the team has no doubt had a great experience and learning curve playing at the top level. 

There was great camaraderie amongst the Auckland players who will strive for greater honours next year.

Congratulations to Bowls Nelson and Bowls Wellington for winning the 2023 edition of the National Intercentre event.

-- Alison Rennie

Octagonal Premier 2 Challenge

18-19 March 2023
Eight centres from the upper North Island - Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau, Far North, Northland, North Harbour, Thames Valley and Waikato took the initiative to set up the inaugural Octagonal Challenge for developing players. Hosted by Auckland at Howick Bowling Club, this Octagonal Challenge was a prime opportunity for developing bowlers to experience the atmosphere of competitive bowls.

The tournament was a reminder of the good ole days of All Black tours when the “dirt trackers” would take on the leading provincial side for the opportunity to press for test selection!

At 7:00am on Saturday morning, we were faced with three flooded greens. Greenkeeper Paul Hickey and his band of trojans set about screeding off the water. By 8:45am, the greens were marked, and trial ends began. What a miracle those trojans worked! The format was a round-robin, with sides consisting of Singles, Pairs and Fours.

After Day 1 (Round 4), Bay of Plenty, Northland and Auckland lead the combined scores. Day 2 saw some of the top teams pitted against each other and whilst the order changed, the competition among the other teams remained fierce - which prevented any surprise bolters.

The final standings were: First - Auckland, 22 points; Second - Northland, 20 points;
Third - Bay of Plenty, 18 points. 

Irrespective of the centre standings, there were some noteworthy team performances, and if a dream team were to emerge, our picks would be:

Women's section

• Singles - Philly Akaruru from Auckland had seven straight victories.
• Pairs - Bay of Plenty mother and daughter pairing of Angela Stephen & Caitlin Thomson won six in a row, only to fall at their last game.
• Fours - Counties Manukau foursome of Jane Brown, Sheryl Brownlee, Moi Purea & Alice Riedel also went unbeaten with a record of 7-0.

Men’s section

• Singles - Daymon Pierson from North Harbour had the perfect 7-0.
• Pairs - The combination of Mike Reddy & Chris Smith from Far North won four from seven. 
• Fours - Auckland's Kevin Beasley, Adam Blucher, Craig Harold & Vili Fifita lost their first game, then went on to win the next six.

Overall it was a very successful inaugural tournament and the feedback we have received so far from centres indicates this event will be the first of many!

Special thanks to Howick Bowls and its members for their superb hospitality, umpires Jamie Chen & Amy Cheung, and of course a big bow to all eight centres for attending - without your players we wouldn't have had such a great event.

-- Gerard Hulst

1-5 Year Interclub

18-19 March 2023
24 Any Combination teams of six players in Singles, Pairs and Triples entered this season's 1-5 Year Interclub. Each side played a round-robin in a scatter draw during the qualifying rounds, with only the section winners proceeding to post section.

Heavy rain on Friday night meant Papatoetoe Hunters Corner's natural greens were unplayable, forcing two sections to move to carpet at Ōtāhuhu Railway Bowling Club and Bridge Park Bowling Club. 

Five section winners were clear cut, but Section 2 had two sides neck-in-neck with 18 points each - the NToS determined the winner.

Post Section
Saturday's fine weather enabled Post Section to be moved back to Papatoetoe HC on Sunday. Even though green keeper Mike Galloway was away in Christchurch for National Intercentre, the green was well prepared before 8:30am!  

There were some very close games in the Quarter and Semi-Finals, where three sides won 2 out of 3 games, and a mere one shot in a game decided the winner of the match.

It was the same in the Final - the match could have gone either way until the last 15 minutes. The two finalists were even in the Pairs and the Triples. Howick Red was 15-20 down in the Singles but came back strongly with two consecutive winning ends of 3 shots to clinch the win and hence the title. 

Congratulations, Howick Red. For the second year running, Howick has qualified for the regional Mercedes Cup, to be held in Hikurangi on Saturday, 7 May 2023.

First 1-5 Interclub for Rocky Nook Kōtare 

Rocky Nook Kōtare, for the first time in memory, entered the 1-5 Year Interclub. After some good sessions with Club Coach Denise West and colleagues, we hit the ground running on Saturday, winning seven and a draw from our nine games against Carlton Cornwall, Te Atatu and Royal Oak.

This qualified us for the final day, where we had a later start than most due to drawing the bye. Our Semi-Final match against Blockhouse Bay Beasts literally went down to the last end! Teresa Cowie and Karen Dewar had a great win in the Pairs, 19-9. Richard Fuller went down in the Singles 21-16, while Sue Wilson, Gordon Cowie and Steve King in the Triples were tied up 17-all after 17 ends - only to drop a 2 on the very last end.

All team members had a fantastic time and we would like to thank Denise, Sean, Chris and Puna for the great support provided, both before and during the event.

--Richard Fuller

Blackjacks in multi nation

Good luck to the Blackjacks participating in the 2023 Multi-Nations taking place in the Gold Coast from 23-31 March.  

Bowls NZ will keep you up to date with event info, results & broadcast info here...

• Venue: Rocky Nook Bowls, Fowlds Park, Mt Albert
• When: Sunday 16 April 2023
• Time: 9 am for 9.30 am start
• Format: 3 games
• Wear: Team-playing strips are encouraged
• Food: BYO lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided plus a coffee kart is onsite from 9:00am-11.00am. The club bar will be open from midday until 5:00pm. 

Registration is FREE!
One team per club tournament - ie: if you have two Twilight Bowls3Five tournaments in a season you can enter the winners of both - with a maximum of 16 clubs, so first in best dressed! Late entries will go on a waiting list for available places or late withdrawals. This team is not guaranteed entry.

Registration closes at 9.00 pm on Thursday 13, April - sooner if all 16 available slots are taken.

Barfoot & Thompson Eastern Bay Classic

21 March 2023
On Tuesday, St Heliers hosted its annual Barfoot & Thompson Eastern Bays Classic, 16 players from each of the four clubs in the Bays, Glendowie, Kohimarama, Remuera & St Heliers.

The weather was good to start with, the Pairs and then reverse Pairs were played in good weather but as predicted the rain arrived around 2:30pm. We played for 15 minutes, then had a break for 30 minutes, until the rain eased. Finally, the Fours were able to get in the required 10 ends to complete the games. The day was full of “banter”, especially the Fours, which is usual for this tournament.

While waiting for the results to come in when asked, no club was confident of success – St Heliers was certainly not!  Glendowie was the deserved winner for the third year in a row, with 30 ends and 51 points. Well done Glendowie.   St Heliers came a very lucky 4th!

The winning team from Glendowie David Nightingale, Bev Caskie, Colin O’Brien & I. Young with our sponsors Glenn Flinkenberg & Helen Clelland from Barfoot & Thompson.

--Roger Seaton

Social bowls at Pt Chev

Pt Chevalier Bowling Club's Wednesday Night Social Bowls wrapped up with the Natives taking first place and Chur Bowls placing second.

A huge thank you to all the teams. Fun times! See you all again in October.

Henderson Champs

A full-on club championship week out at Te Atatu Peninsula saw some great bowls played as usual and for once the weather was great!

• Men's Triples - Ivan Arnerich, Peter Chapman, Gerard Plaisier
• Women's Triples - Josie Mitchell, Willemina Starke, Marie Goudge
• Women's Singles - Laurita Arnerich
• Men's Fours - Billy Fulton, Tony Garelja, Scott McCamish, Gerard Plaisier
• Vets Singles - Kerry Dye

Remuera Champs

Played recently at Remuera, Mixed Championship Fours. Winners: Paul Elsmore (3), Connie Cheng (2), John Heingartner (L), Alan Leung (S).