INDOOR BOWLS - Winning way for for new selector

A NEW selector for any representative team may go unnoticed but while new Northland Indoor Bowls selector Don Christini isn't out to make waves, he certainly has high hopes for the Northland squad this year.
After the national championships in Tauranga in June, the biggest test of the year for the Northland team is the Patterson Trophy, the competition between the top-eight provincial teams.
"Northland was runner-up in the team last year, so I think aiming to win isn't out of the question and it would be good to be a selector of a team that won it as well - and we've got the players here to do it this year."
Christini has all the right qualifications for the job. He has played representative indoor bowls for Northland from 1978 through to 2004.
"I've been in the [Northland] rep team for 22-23 years ... so I know what's going on but I started playing when I was about 9-years-old with my mother, it was a family thing and although I've had a couple of breaks, mainly through playing rugby, I've been a regular player since then," he said.
Christini won the Glenvale Trophy as the player of the tournament at the nationals in 1986 and has won 21 Northland Centre Titles since moving to Kerikeri from the Waikato in 1978. But perhaps his biggest single success on the national scene was winning the national pairs title in 2003, with his wife Lillian. Considering the tournament started just two days after the wedding, it was a major feat that got the marriage off to a great start.
"It was the first national title that Northland had ever won and for us that was the honeymoon," he said.
Lillian, one of Northland's top players, will be out for selection into the New Zealand team this year along with Onerahi bowler Lyn Brittain after both were selected into the North Island team last year. Her pre-eminence in the team takes out any concerns Christini has about conflict of interest in his new role.
"The good part about that (as far as being the selector) is that she's not a marginal player, she's definite on the list every time." he said.
The initial squad has been selected by the three-man Northland panel of Dave Ross, Peter Sole and Christini.
The final selections will be made when the Northland team plays the Presidents team on Sunday in what is becoming the traditional start to the Northland Indoor Bowling season.
Northland: Don Simpson (Northern Wairoa); Lyn Brittain, John Dufty, Noel Bailey, Jeff Cole, Judy Johnston (Whangarei); Kia Ward, Bob McKinley, Pauline McKinley (Far North); Lillian Christini, Noel Bethel, Trudi Watson, Chris Watson, Dave Ross, Basil Stewart, John Teirney (Bay of Islands).
Presidents team: Kerry Manson, Eddie McCarthy (Far North), Carol Hoult, Marion Banks, John Cree (Bay of Islands); John Love, Mike Riceman, Peter Dalton, Pat Severinsen, Inez Bunting, Kath Love, Connie Cebalo (Whangarei) Eryl Nolan, Graham Turner, Joyce Turner, Val Hamilton (Rodney).