Gwen Lawson's bowls column: Whangārei foursome finished runners-up in prestigious Taranaki comp

The Whangārei composite team of Dusty Reader, Paul Wightman (pictured) Steve Smith and George Lyddiard reached the final of the popular Taranaki Men's Open.

The week started off with good news when the Whangārei composite team of Dusty Reader, Paul Wightman, Steve Smith and George Lyddiard reached the final of the ever-popular Taranaki Men's Open Tournament.

This event has been running for 117 years and is the most prestigious fours tournament held in the country. Well done to them when they came across the Westend (Taranaki) combination in the final.

The Westend team has won the event and drawn with another combination four out of the past five years, so they were a hard nut to crack. Although Whangārei finished runners-up in the tournament we as a centre can be very proud of their achievement.

While the men were in Taranaki, the Northland women's rep squad took on Auckland, Counties-Manukau and Far North in a quadrangular tournament played at Mangawhai greens. This competition was very strong and teams from these centres will shortly be taking off for the NZ National Inter Centre Tournament.

This event became a win for the Northland squad of Patricia Murray, Karina Cooper, Diane Strawbridge, Leanne Stewart, Sue Wightman, Wendy Sarjeant, Diane Klump and Dawn Owens with 18 win points, second was Auckland 16 points, Counties-Manukau 10 points, Far North eight points.

Many thanks to Mangawhai who hosted this event, and Jenny and Graeme who controlled it.

Wednesday saw us play round five of section play for the Bowls3Five Mixed Triples event. Twelve teams took part, and qualifiers to play semifinals and finals on Wednesday at Kensington Club will be Hatea Eels, Mill Crushers, Parahaka Trackers and Kamo Keas.

Play will start at 5.45pm so that we can get the semifinal and final played in one night. This event is being played on the two-sets format, a shortened version of the game with matches all finished in just over an hour.

This year the winners of the Northland event will get direct entry into the NZ final to be played in Wellington in May. The winner of this event of course has a chance to play in the Bowls3Five competition played on television each year.

Reminder to clubs:

Entries for the Men's Interclub 7s will close on February 3. Please send entry and payment to the centre office and a copy of the entry to the events manager. Secretaries have a copy of the entry form.

A reminder to the women:

Junior 1-5 Year singles will be played February 12-13 . Entries close February 3. Please enter on the website or email to the event manager. This weekend we
will see the 1-5 Year Interclub Sixes being played at Kensington on January 31. Play starts at 9am.

There have been eight club entries: Onerahi, Kensington, Kamo 1, Kamo 2, Hikurangi, Ngunguru, Maungatapere-One Tree Point, Mangawhai, any combination format. Don't forget to bring your marker as all teams are playing, singles, pairs and triples. Conditions of play have been sent to all clubs.

Club events for next week:
Saturday – Arapohue 1-10 AC Triples, Kensington AC Triples; Leigh 2x4x2 AC 1-5 year pairs.

Sunday - Arapohue men's triples.

Monday - Ruawai Classic Fours2M2w; Centre 1-5 Year Interclub.

Tuesday - Maungakaramea AC Triples.

Wednesday- Mangawhai MX Pairs; Bowls3Five Interclub final, 5.45pm start.