Bowls: Talent on display at regional finals

Saturday saw victories for Wayne Wrack (Maungaturoto), above, and Diane Lawrence (Hikurangi) in the Singles. Photo / Tania Webb

Regional 1-5 Year Finals for the Mercedes Trophy will be played at the Hikurangi greens this Saturday.

Junior teams from Counties-Manukau, Auckland, North Harbour, Northland and Far North will take part in a round-robin tournament played as singles, pairs and triples.

Play starts at 9am and Northland will be represented by:
Singles: Linda Spratt.
Pairs: Chris Budge, Verna Clyde.
Triples: Alan Wheeler, Don Nicholson, Rex Thomas.

Wrack wins
Champion of Champions events commenced last weekend and it was two victories for the Maungaturoto and Hikurangi Clubs in the singles and triples.

Saturday saw victories for Wayne Wrack (Maungaturoto) and Diane Lawrence (Hikurangi) in the Singles. Runners-up were Dennis Brewster (Ngunguru) and Madeline Yovich (Kamo).

There were many outstanding games played throughout the day, with Sam Nelson (Hikurangi) going down to Brewster 21-20 in a semifinal and Yovich going down to Lawrence 21-20 in the final.

Wrack had comfortable wins throughout the day to take out his 19th Centre title. For Lawrence this was her seventh Centre title, the fourth in singles.

Sunday saw the triples completed at Maungaturoto greens. In the Men's final it was a close and challenging match between the Maungaturoto combination of Kevin Robinson, Wayne Wrack and Michael Petley and the Hikurangi combination of Sam Nelson, Dennis Brewster and Steve Mitchell.

Once again there were outstanding bowls played with shots being exchanged on every end. After 11 ends the score was 10-9 to Maungaturoto and successful scoring on the next four ends gave them the win 15-10.

This success gave Wrack his 20th Northland title and a centre gold bar, Robinson his fourth, and Michael (a new bowler to the club) his first.

In the semifinals Hikurangi beat Onerahi and Maungaturoto beat Waipu.

In the Women's division the final was between the strong Hikurangi combination of Betty Mitchell, Manu Timoti and Savanna Lauder and the Waipu combination of Jo Walker, Verna Clyde and Jan Guinness.

Lauder, Clyde and Guinness are all junior bowlers and all played well to reach the final. Hikurangi came out the winner by 24-6. In the semifinals Hikurangi bt Kamo and Waipu beat a strong Kensington combination.

This was a 15th title for Mitchell, to give her a second gold bar, 17 titles for Timoti and a second open title for Lauder.

The final Champion of Champion events will be played on May 16-17 at Kensington.