South Island team prove too strong

The South Island Indoor Bowls representatives wrapped up their tour of the North Island with a convincing 28-20 win over Northland at the Badminton Hall, Toe Toe Road, Whangarei. 
The win on Thursday capped off a successful bi-annual tour of the North Island for the South Island squad with seven wins, one draw and one loss, with Northland team spokesperson Trudy Watson saying it was a pleasure to play such a good side.
"They were a good team and although we lost 28-20, a lot of the games we lost were lost on the last end by one point so it was pretty close, showing there wasn't much difference between the teams," she said.
The Northern side got off to a good start with four wins. They came in the women's singles with Lillian Christini, who defeated Canterbury's Ann Graham in three straight games 14-6, 10-7, 11-6 and the women's pair, skipped by Judy Johnston with Kath Love as lead beating Suzanne Mackie, of Southland and Carolyn Cooper of South Canterbury 11-11, 8-6, 10-5.
Success came for Northland in the men's pairs and fours. The South's success came in the men's singles and triples and the women's fours with the women's pairs drawn for Northland to lead 9-7 early on.
However in the second round the southerners fought back winning the women's and men's triples and fours, as well as the men's pairs while Northland won the women's singles and pairs with the men's singles drawn with the South edging ahead 18-14.
In the final round the Southerners recorded five wins to Northland's three to complete the win 28-20. The wins were in the women's triples and pairs, the men's singles, triples and fours. Northland won the women's singles and the men's and women's pairs.
It was a good performance by the South Island - particularly by the women's four of Jean McKenzie, Adrienne Caswell, Rosemary Bennett and Jenny White - who defeated Kia Ward, Pauline McKinley, Phyllis Cooper and Lyn Nisbet 11-4, 9-2, 7-3. The men's triple of Michael Lawson, Daniel French and Chris Moffitt also won in three straight.
The South's tour started with a win over 30-18 win over Taranaki, they drew with North Taranaki 24-24, beat King Country and Central King Country combined 31-17, lost to Waikato 18-30, beat Thames Valley 29-19, beat Counties and Roskill and Districts 29-19, beat Auckland 27-21, beat North Harbour 38-10 and finally Northland 28-20.
The tour culminates in the annual Inter-Island match for the Kevin Eddy Memorial Trophy at the Pukekohe Cosmopolitan Club  today.
 Most of the Northland team who played them on Thursday will attend the test match to support Lyn Brittain, who will play in the North team but also because they play a quadrangular tournament against Counties, Waikato and the Manukau associationstomorrow.