Play-offs glory in sight for clubs

Bowls

Masterton and Featherston will be flying the Wairarapa flag when the regional play-offs in the national interclub bowls championships are played in Napier this weekend.

They qualified to represent their province at this prestigious event by winning their McKenzie Motors interclub events on the domestic front, Masterton taking out the women's title and Featherston the men's.

Bowl New Zealand's 27 centres are represented in the regional play-offs, the winners of which go forward to the national finals.

Wairarapa is part of region three, which includes Gisborne-East Coast, Hawke's Bay and Manawatu, which illustrates the high standard of competition they will face as the Northern club from Manawatu won the regional play-off and national titles last year.

Playing the singles for the Masterton women's team will be the in-form Judith Wyeth, while Sheryl Petersen and Dorothy Christensen will be in the pairs and Joy Gibbs, Edith Kern, Sue Penfold and Tania Brown the fours.

Making it through to the regional play-offs is a remarkable achievement for the Featherston men's team.

Their club is one of the smallest in Wairarapa and they can be said to have punched well above their weight by taking out the McKenzie Motors event and go on to represent their province at a higher level.

Longtime Wairarapa representative Les O'Donovan will play the singles for Featherston with Doug Bennett and Ian Symons in the pairs and Bernie Kelly, Len Le Gros, Ray Simonsen and Bruce Howe the fours.