Experience puts Fab Four in frame

Throw a yachtie, fisherman, golfer and cricketer in an outdoor bowls fours team and you come up with a champion combination.
That's what the Masterton Bowling Club quartet of Dennis Richards, Keith Hannam, Bill Hamilton and Graham Chandler says has been the secret of their success in major events played over the past few weeks.
That and the fact they have experience on their side, something which can hardly be debated when you consider their combined age is 303 years.
Richards, 73, is, as any yachtie should be, the skip; fisherman Hannam, 76, the number three; golfer Hamilton, 81, the number two; and cricketer Chandler, 73, the lead.
Their remarkable run of hot form started with the Masterton club's fours championship, their entry in which was a last-minute affair. Richards hadn't intended to play until Hannam suggested they form a team. Hamilton and Chandler were available and so the Fab Four become a reality.
To win the Masterton title they had to overcome a powerful team consisting of three longtime Wairarapa representatives in Ian Monaghan, Graham Tindall and Warren Fisher and promising junior Scott McKenzie in the final. It was a tough slog but with Richards playing two vital shots, a five on the last end got them home.
That victory meant the Fab Four would represent Masterton in Bowls Wairarapa's champion of champions fours event. Again they were seen as a longshot but again they rose to the occasion, beating a Greytown team skipped by Alan Thomas in the decider.
For Chandler, who has been playing bowls for 14 years, and Hamilton, one year longer, it was their first centre title and for Richards, who has been playing 21 years, and Hannam 30 years, their third.
Then it was on to the Wairarapa vets fours championship and again they were unstoppable, taking the spoils from another Masterton team skipped by Gordon Reynolds.
Richards admits to being ''gobsmacked'' at the Fab Four's impressive showings but reckons it has been a case of players focusing on doing their job, and doing it well. ''We haven't had any arguments so I guess things must be going well,'' he said. ''I am not sure if anybody actually listens though ... or even if they can hear!''
Meanwhile the Masterton club will represent Bowls Wairarapa in both the men's and women's sections of the regional inter-club finals at Takaro in Palmerston North on Saturday.
The men's team will consist of Warren Fisher (singles), Ian Monaghan and Laurie Field (pairs) and John Claydon, Graham Tindall, Gary Caffell and Mark Morete (fours) while the women's team is Dorothy Christiansen (singles), Shirley Hewson and Jean Hannam (pairs) and Sheryl Petersen, Joy Gibbs, Edith Kern and Maria Steffert (fours).
Opposition will come from the top club sides in Gisborne-East Coast, Hawke's Bay and Manawatu and the provincial sides from the same four centres _ both senior and development squad _ will square off in the zone playoffs at Terrace End green in Palmerston North on Sunday.
The Wairarapa senior men's team for that was confirmed yesterday by selector Dave Petersen and is Ian Monaghan (singles), Les O'Donovan and Warren Fisher (pairs) and Graham Tindall, Peter McGillicuddy, Gary Caffell and Laurie Field (fours) and the men's development squad line-up is Josef Hajnos (singles), Richard Anderson and Peter Gibbs (pairs) and Steven Willis, Bruce Howe, Karl Hollis and Clive Harper (fours).
Featherston's Les O'Donovan won his 22nd centre title when he beat Ian Monaghan (Masterton) in a thrilling Bowls Wairarapa champion of champions men's singles event. O'Donovan raced out to a 15-0 lead but Monaghan bounced back to a 20-18 advantage. O'Donovan had the last say, winning 21-20 after a couple of brilliant shots on the last end.
Monaghan did, however, combine with his Masterton clubmate Warren Fisher to win the centre's champion of champion's men's pairs, his 38th centre title, easily a Wairarapa record.
They were made to work hard in the final by South End's Roger Franklin and Paul Miller with the scores being level at 13-13 playing the last end. Fisher placed an early bowl alongside the jack and it stayed there to give the Masterton duo the win.
The champion of champion women's singles was a triumph for the very much in-form Eketahuna player Avis Cooper who was winning her 22nd centre title when she beat Makaia Campbell, of Martinborough, in the final, while the champion of champion's women's pairs went to the Lansdowne combination of Jean Paku and Sue Sherwood. They beat Masterton's Sheryl Petersen and Wynne Dellabarca in that final.