Champ of Champs Pairs

14-15 May 2022

Spoiler alert, Carlton Cornwall did the double on the weekend, winning the Women’s and the Men’s Champion of Champions Pairs events.

Twenty Women’s teams lined up to do battle under sunny skies at Balmoral Bowling Club. The green was very slick, so a wide draw and deft weight control were the keys to success. There were some hard luck stories along the way, notably a team that dropped a six with two ends to play and lost the game by one shot. Another team, after six ends, began to claw back a ten-point deficit and square the board after 18 ends only to lose the tiebreaker on a tight measure.

On Sunday, the first semi-final saw Jo McKenna and Jenny Stockford from Pt Chevalier take on the defending national champions from New Lynn, Olivia Bloomfield and Paris Baker. This match was live-streamed and saw New Lynn win 20-12. The second semi-final saw Doreen Jensen and Jaime Delany from Onehunga & Districts build a steady lead over their opponents Karen Hema and Lisa Prideaux from Carlton Cornwall. However, the Carlton Cornwall team proved too strong, in the end winning a tight match 19-17.

The Final between New Lynn and Carlton Cornwall was also live-streamed. Both teams played steady bowls; however, there were two significant events in the match; Firstly, on the 10th end, New Lynn managed to turn three down on the head to two up and trail 8-9.  Secondly, on the 15th end, Carlton Cornwall was four down on the head.  With her last bowl, Karen Hema drew through two loose bowls to sit with the jack and take a 16-10 lead. The New Lynn pair fought back, but could not catch up, with Carlton Cornwall winning the match 20-12.

Thirty Men’s teams lined up at Auckland Bowling Club to do battle. The results tended to go the way of the favoured clubs. On Sunday, the first semi-final was between Ellerslie's David Motu and Danny Delaney and Balmoral's Scott Harrison and Tony Marinkovich, with Ellerslie taking the honours, 15-12. The second semi-final was between Richard Kempthorne and Roger Johnston from St Heliers and the defending national champions from Carlton Cornwall, Leif Selby and James Williams, with the latter proving too strong, winning 19-8.

Even though the Final was live-streamed, a good-sized parochial crowd was there to cheer on the Ellerslie duo of 14-year-old David Motu and past New Zealand representative Danny Delaney. The scoreboard ticked over steadily with Carlton Cornwall in the lead.  However, the stats show Ellerslie winning the “odd ends” by one shot against Carlton Cornwall’s winning the “even ends” by two shots. On the 13th end, Ellerslie was five down on the head, David calmly ran at the jack and was unlucky to kill it - otherwise, he would have scored three. The replayed end went to form with Ellerslie picking up two. Alas, the Carlton Cornwall team proved too strong, taking out the win 20-10. In his winner’s speech, Leif Selby paid tribute to David and encouraged him not to dwell on the loss as he played exceptionally well and had a bright future in bowls.

Women's champions - Lisa Prideaux and Karen Hema (pictured above)
Men's champions - Leif Selby and James Williams (pictured below)

Contributed by Gerard Hulst

1-5 Year Pairs

14-15 May 2022

The 1-5 Year Pairs was played on Saturday across Te Atatu Peninsula, Glen Eden,
Pt Chevalier and Papatoetoe Hunters Corner with 52 teams vying for the title.

Post Section games were played at Auckland Bowling Club on Sunday with the field narrowed down to 28 teams.  

After two rounds and many close games, we were down to the last eight teams.  With the crown lending their support the final round saw four teams through to the semi-finals.  An exceptionally close match between Auckland Bowling Club and Blockhouse Bay saw a last bowl thriller played by Gloria Akaruru taking the shot and the win.

Semi-finalists are:
Onehunga & Districts (Glenn Taylor and James Forsyth)
Auckland Bowling Club (Gloria Akaruru and Paul Neazor)
Royal Oak (Steve Fisher and Villiama Fifita) 
Pt Chevalier (Jean-Claude Fuller and Henry Fane)

Book Saturday 4 June in your calendar for the Finals - the venue is to be confirmed.

Coaching at clubs

There has been growing interest from clubs for Leif Selby to run coaching sessions for its members - it's encouraging to see so many attend.

Mt Albert Bowling Club held its session last Wednesday, 11 May (pictured above) and for Titirangi RSA Bowling Club, their session was on Monday, 16 May (pictured below).

Upcoming events

21-22 May – Champ of Champs Triples and 1-5 Year Triples
28-29 May – Champ of Champs Fours and 1-5 Year Singles
4-5 June – 1-5 Year Finals
11-12 June – 1-5 Year Fours
19 June – Auckland Bowls awards function                                   

From our clubs

Monday nights for newbies

Remuera Bowls
16 May 2022

For the past two months, Remuera Bowling Club has run a 2-4-2 series comprising two games of 45 minutes duration. Held every second Monday of the month, the series allows new bowlers to practice with other new bowlers, overseen and assisted by RBC members.

RBC has a great selection of loan bowls, including the most up-to-date variations and a full range of sizes that new bowlers can trial & use during the evening. For those who have never picked up a bowl before, RBC members are on hand to impart their wisdom about the game.

Now there has been a change in the weather, it is very pleasant to be in the RBC Rawhiti-covered green facility - with great lighting and a truly green carpet.  This Monday 16 May, we had 24 new players from RBC, Kohi, and Glendowie practice for two hours ending with prize-giving at 8.30pm.

We currently use the 2-4-2 format to give each new bowler experience of being a lead or skip, doing simple things such as measuring correctly, or the correct placement of the jack on the 2-metre mark, as demonstrated by our qualified coach Jamie Chen.

In the future, we hope to provide new bowlers an option of playing 2-4-2 or maybe Tiples with an experienced bowler in the middle to help and guide them.

Remuera warmly invites any new or potential new bowlers from other Auckland clubs to come and join us Monday, 30 May. You can contact Keith Berman for further details at kberman@ninehigh.co.nz or at 021 763 032.

Contributed by Don Currey

Thursday Triples

Remuera Bowls
19 May 2022

You can’t tell by looking at this crew, but it was a very rainy day Thursday in Auckland. Open Triples are played undercover at Remuera Bowling Club.

Pictured are this week’s top team with convenor Murray Lander (left), Charles Martin (Kohimarama), John Heimgartner (Remuera) and Paul Elsmore (Remuera). 

Club events