BOWLS - Too wet to finish the season

With Garry Houlahan
The season was supposed to come to a close on the weekend with Champion of Champion Pairs for men and women and the final of the men's Champion of Champion Triples being played.
All started well on Saturday morning at Kamo with the pairs, and a full four rounds were played although the final game was played in rain.
On Sunday the survivors lined up again and a further round was finalised but after just a few ends in round six, the greens went under water and no further play was possible.
After an early lunch everybody moved to Hikurangi to continue on the artificial surface.
Round six was completed at which stage the remaining women players decided that they had had enough but the men carried on to complete their competition.
Conditions were very trying with most players unable to hold their bowls properly and the heavy nature of the green meant that more often than not most bowls ended up well short of the jack.
The men's triples final was also postponed although Sam Prasad was available to play when he was eliminated from the pairs at the end of round six.
It will now be necessary to complete these competitions this coming weekend. Play has been scheduled for Bowls Whangarei greens on Saturday morning at 10am. Hopefully the weather will play the game this weekend although the long range forecast does not look good.
* Pair wins twice
The new men's Champion of Champion Pairs team is Daniel Hood and Charlie Jellick from Maungakaramea who defeated Alan Rakich and Tom Ker from Dargaville twice to take the title.
The Dargaville pair went through the first six rounds undefeated and had two lives still intact.
They had actually taken Maungakaramea's first life off them on Sunday morning after they both went through the first day's play undefeated.
Maungakaramea were comfortably in front in this game until a wayward drive saw them drop six shots which let Dargaville through.
Maungakaramea then had to survive an extra end against Bowls Whangarei to book their finals spot and Dargaville comfortably accounted for Kensington in their semifinal.
In the first potential final Maungakaramea made no race of it and the game was conceded with several ends still to play.
In the second contest Maungakaramea continued on their way with Charlie Jellick leading well in the very wet and trying conditions and Daniel Hood chiming in when needed.
The final score was 24-9 which reflected the relative capabilities of the two sides on the day.
Congratulations to Daniel and Charlie and commiserations to Alan and Tom.
* Skip was substitute
Although the Centre Honours Board will show Daniel Hood as the skip of the winning pair, he was a replacement for Denis Snelling who won the club title but who was unavailable for the Champion of Champions event.
This situation arose with a few teams in this competition which was down to be played earlier in the season but was rained off.
A number of players had made alternative arrangements expecting that the season would be over at the end of April and replacements had to be found to fill vacant spots.
* Women's pairs to battle
There are three remaining teams in the women's pairs all with one life.
They are Onerahi (Sophie Anderson and Ann Lison), Dargaville (Tottie Rakich and Ann Radonich) and Hikurangi (Sarah Wright and Girl Reweti). Hikurangi have the bye into the final while Onerahi and Dargaville will do battle on Saturday at Bowls Whangarei.
Onerahi were the only remaining two-life team at the end of play on Saturday but they lost to Hikurangi in the rain on Sunday.
Perhaps the Hikurangi pair are used to playing on their artificial surface in the wet.