BOWLS - Jack's Corner

With Garry Houlahan
* Good turnout and a great day at Maungaturoto fours
I MADE my annual pilgrimage to Maungaturoto last Friday and enjoyed a day's bowls playing in the McCallum family-sponsored fours tournament.
Ron McCallum and his family have done a tremendous amount for the Maungaturoto club and this was appreciated by all who attended. The fact that both greens were full indicates the great support that bowlers throughout the top of the island give to this event. A total of 17 different clubs were represented on the day, equally spread among North Harbour and Northland centres.
The club holds two major tournaments during the season and holds a double on both of these with a major travel prize of $1200 to the top team over both tournaments.
The winner of the double was a North Harbour combination skipped by Stu McDonald, Ken Westlake, Warren Seeque and Tony Curties. Although the team was officially a North Harbour team there was a Northland association, with skip Stu McDonald being a former member of Leigh, Ken Westlake being a full member of both Silverdale and Maungaturoto clubs, and Warren Seeque being a former member of Wellsford club.
The result was very close with the winners having eight wins over the two days and 50 ends won, and scoring 103 points. The runners-up were a Kamo team of Graham Neeley, Graham Gallant, Peter Herbert and Pam Brewster, who also had eight wins and 50 ends, but only 97 points.
The tournament on the Friday was also very close, with no fewer than five teams having the maximum four wins. In fifth spot were Len Lawrence's Mangawhai team, who had 24 ends and 48 points, fourth went to Murray Vallance's Silverdale team also on 24 ends but with 49 points, and third were the Kamo team under Graham Neeley with 25 ends and 55 points.
In second place was Brian Waterson, with a team from Omaha and Leigh. They had 26 ends and 55 points, but the winner by one end on 27 ends and 60 points were the North Harbour team mentioned above.
A very good tournament and congratulations to Maungaturoto and all those involved with it.
* Clear winners
FURTHER kudos for Maungaturoto came on Sunday when they won the 1-5 Year Interclub competition at Whangarei RSA greens. Seven clubs entered, which unfortunately meant a bye in each round, but this did not detract from the competition.
Five rounds were played on the day and after three rounds had been completed it was very tight at the top, with both Maungaturoto and Mangawhai having 13 points and a plus 47 shots differential, closely followed by Kensington No1 and Onerahi, both on 12 points, and then came Kensington No2 with 11 points.
At the conclusion of the day, Maungaturoto were clear winners with 25 points, runners-up were Kensington No1 on 22 points, while third went to Onerahi on 20 points and plus 70 shots. Fourth were Mangawhai, who also had 20 points but plus 51 shots, followed by Kamo men with 14 points, Kensington No2 on 11 points, and Kamo women with 10 points. Some good talent was on display and selectors in the 1-5 Year category will have some thinking to do.
The winning team was Brett Robinson, who played the singles, John Anderson and Kevin Robinson (skip) in the pair, and Ngaira Vaney, Rex Roadley and Ken Westlake (skip) in the triples. Well done to them all.
* Sticklers for accuracy
I OFFICIATED as umpire at the 1-5 Year Interclub on Sunday and on one occasion was called and asked to measure two bowls. This I did and made a decision which was accepted by the players. A couple of minutes later one of the skips commented to me that he did not know why I had been called to measure those two bowls as they both belonged to the same team! I know that the competition among these junior bowlers is pretty keen, but calling the umpire to see who out of the same team has the closest bowl seems to be taking matters a bit too seriously. In fairness to the players, one of the bowls had a club sticker and the other did not, so it is easy to see how a mistake could be made
* Nationals await
GOOD luck to all those bowlers attending the nationals in Christchurch over the Christmas break. As may be expected, the entry from the North is not large, with transportation and accommodation costs being high.
As usual the Kensington women are well represented with Anne Bateman, Phyllis Holmes, Nancy Jujnovich, Janice McLean, Ann Muir and Patricia Murray making the trip. In the men's events, Steve Smith, Hayden Smith and Paul Yovich are teaming up with Howard Sadler from Auckland to make up a team, and Chris Gore from Mangawhai - who is a former Cantabrian - is teaming up with former club mates from that area. We will be keeping a close eye on the results.