Campi Cup

13-14 August 2022
Hosted at Epsom Bowls

Auckland Bowling Coaches Association's annual Campi Trophy tournament is an avenue for women in their first five years of lawn bowls to pit themselves against others in the same classification. Epsom Bowls is again the tournament host.

The live draw on Saturday morning determines how the 23 teams from six zones will compete. Each Skip picks their own rink and thereby their opponents in the event. On day one it's four games of Triples, with a further three on day two, each with a time limit of 1 hour and 20 minutes. Teams are kept on their toes with rankings posted at the end of each round. 

After two rounds, there were only three teams with two wins and three with one win and a draw. At the end of day one, there was one team with three wins and one draw, and six teams with three wins. 

The competition was more fierce when play began on the second day! With one round remaining, the top two teams fought for the trophy. The South-East Zone team of Shelley McCabe, Linda Mirabelli, and Hannah Dawson were the victors. They lifted the Campi Cup with six wins and one draw. 

Salley Yoakley, Eileen Shore, and Christine Black from Counties Manukau were the runners-up with five wins and a draw. Andrea Wilson, Lisa Appleyard and Colleen Short from the Central Zone placed third with five wins. 

We had the privilege of having Linda Ralph of Carlton Cornwall hand out the prizes. As the winner of many disciplines at national, centre, and at club levels, she spoke about her experience as a bowler and provided a few tips on playing good bowls and winning tournaments. Thank you, Linda!

The weather was pretty good on both days, perfect for bowls, according to the players and supporters. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all the players who participated. Thank you to Epsom Bowls for your help and for the use of your facilities. Finally, thank you to all the coaches who gave their time and effort in training our 1-5s over the last eight weeks. Without you, there would not be such a tournament!

See you next year, and all the best in the Auckland 1-5 Year events coming up in September.

Contributed by Weng Lim

Campi winners: Shelley McCabe, Linda Mirabelli, and Hannah Dawson from South East Zone with Linda Ralph.
Campi runner-up: Salley Yoakley, Eileen Shore and Christine Black from Counties Manukau

Canoe Cup

13-14 August 2022
Hosted at Bridge Park 

The Canoe Trophy is a highlight on the playing calendar for 1-5 Year men, an annual tournament run by Auckland Bowls Coaches Association. After six to eight weeks of coaching, equally matched teams are formed representing the five coaching zones of Auckland. Friendships are set aside for the weekend as the competitive battles rage. The format is quite simple, Saturday is four games of round-robin play, with the top eight qualifying for the Canoe championship on Sunday, which is sudden death. The tournament is played irrespective of the weather.

This year the tournament was held on 13 and 14 August under beautiful clear skies (thank you, weather goddess). 33 teams lined up on Saturday at Bridge Park Bowling Club, and the competitiveness began! 

At the end of day one, four teams had four wins, one team had three wins and one draw, and the remaining three qualifiers came from a pool of 10 - three winners were determined by ends won.

On Sunday, Phil Taylor of Bridge Park conducted a live blind draw to determine among the top eight who plays who. For the unlucky 25 teams, a consolation event of four round-robin games is run in conjunction with the main event.

A key match-up was semi-final 2 between Adam Blucher's West Zone team and Viliami Fifita’s Central Zone team. This was a rematch of last year's semi-final 2. Adam and his team were victors on that occasion. 

This year, Viliami played at no. 3, while the Skip was 14-year-old David Motu. West's lead was 12-year-old Ryan Hill. With two ends to go, West was down 9–12. With a one on the penultimate end and some sublime bowling from Adam on the final end to score a two, it was all square - and onto an extra end.  The Skips found themselves with a very tight head at the cross-over, with Central holding one shot. The end was short and required a deft touch. Alas, Adam's first bowl was slightly heavy, while his second bowl was perfectly weighted. He just clipped an opposition short front bowl promoting that for a second shot. A great match worthy of a final.

The final was an all Central affair with David Motu’s team against David Vince’s team. Motu's team continued their form from the semi-final and applied early pressure. Despite some great bowling from David Vince and his team, they just could not match the quality and precision of David Motu. On one occasion, David Vince had trailed the jack into the ditch, his bowl finished 200mm away. David Motu then calmly drew to the plinth board and stopped. The thirds did not need to measure that one! I did see David Vince acknowledge his awe and great sportsmanship. 

The final score was 14–11 for David Motu’s team. This win continues a tradition of collegiate players skipping winning Canoe teams. Well done to all concerned. I foresee Ryan Hill being a Skip in a winning Canoe team in the not-too-distant future. The bronze medal between the two losing semi-finalists was won by Blucher’s West team against the Central team skipped by Jim Hunter.

The four teams exiting the Championship after the first round played in a consolation plate event. The Plate final was between South-East, skipped by Charlie Tapper against the Central, and skipped by Zoran Bartulovich. The Central team took the win 17-2.

After four games of round-robin, the consolation event saw four winners, with the team from South East; Robert Shelwell (S), Doug Suurmond (3), Steve Waltham (2) & Mark Andrews (L), taking the honours with the superior ends won.

Overall it was a great weekend. Special thanks to the volunteers at Bridge Park Bowls for the excellent catering and overall hospitality.

Contributed by Gerard Hulst

Canoe winners: Viliami Fifita, Steve Fisher, Colin Ayris-Webster, David Motu
Plate winners: Neil Prendlville, Zoran Bartulovich, Sitiveni Tikoisuva, Richard Fuller & Tony Maruma (coach)

Upcoming events

20 Aug – ABCA Cup
3-4 Sep – 1-5 Year Fours
10-11 Sep – 1-5 Year Pairs
17-18 Sep – 1-5 Year Triples
24-25 Sep – 1-5 Year Singles

Club events