The winners of the men's pairs title at the national bowls championship this year will be playing in an inter-provincial tournament to be staged at the Masterton club's headquarters this coming weekend, but for different teams. Rob Ashton will skip the pairs for Wellington while Ray Boffa, who led for Ashtonat the nationals, will be skip of the triple for Kapiti. Wellington will start favourites for the tourney which will involve the best players from four centres & Wellington, Kapiti, Manawatu and Wairarapa. Kevin Rice will play for the singles for them with Ashton and Grant Wakefield in the pairs and Ben King, Vince Patel and Paul Manning in the triples. Boffa and the experienced Rex Holmes (pairs skip) are the big names in the Kapiti line-up while Manawatu have national age group representative Steven Woods as their singles player, Wairarapa selector Dave Petersen acknowledges the strength of the opposition but is optimistic of a strong showing from his side of Ian Monaghan (singles), John Claydon and Les O'Donovan (pairs) and Peter McGillicuddy, Graham Tindall and Laurie Field (triples). Monaghan and O'Donovan played off in the final of the centre's champion of champion singles title on Sunday with O'Donovan taking the honours. "I'm prepared to stick my neck out and say that we will go well," Petersen said. "We have the home town advantage and we have a team which has the experience to rise to the occasion. I'm picking we will be right there at the finish." The Wairarapa development squad will also play Wellington, Kapiti and Manawatu at Masterton on Sunday and selector Warren Wyeth shares similar views to Petersen when assessing their prospects. "We will be the underdogs but I wouldn't be surprised if we do a lot better than most people expect," he said. Warren Fisher will play the singles for the development squad with Peter Walker and Clive Harper in the pairs and John Jharmon, John Paterson and Bruce Howe in the triples.
