Tough choice for Wairarapa selector

Wairarapa senior men's bowls selector Dave Petersen was left with a headache after his team's narrow 6 ½-5 ½ loss to Kapiti in their annual representative match played at Masterton on Sunday
Petersen has to cut his 12-man squad in half for the inter-provincial tournament in January and admits that won't be easy after the solid form shown by most players in the latest fixture.
"I don't think anybody did their chances any harm....it was a good all round performance," Petersen said. "Kapiti are always tough nuts to crack and this one went right down to the last bowl in the last game, it was a really close go"
Had the Wairarapa pair of Les O'Donovan and Warren Fisher won that last game against a Kapiti combination skipped by former national pairs champion in Rex Holmes a 6-6 tie would have been the end result but Holmes drew a vital shot with his final delivery to earn himself a 20-20 draw, and his team the overall victory.
Earlier Holmes and his partner Grant Pratt had been upset by Gary Caffell and Mark Morete by a convincing 26-12.
As it happened, however, O'Donovan and Fisher finished with the best record for Wairarapa, having a win and a draw from their two matches while Caffell and Morete, singles player Ian Monaghan. and the triples teams of Graham Tindall, Peter McGillicuddy and Laurie Field and Peter Ireland, Neville Smith and Lester Dee all had one win and one loss.
The Wairarapa development squad men's team also played their Kapiti counterparts at Masterton on Sunday and in another tense, exciting contest it was Wairarapa who took the honours there by 7-5, an effort which delighted selector Warren Wyeth who said his relatively inexperienced combination had coped well with the pressure of the occasion.
Singles exponent James O'Kane and the pair of Richard Anderson and Peter Gibbs won both their matches for Wairarapa while Bruce Howe (singles), Josef Hajnos and Scott McKenzie (pair) and Rex Wood, Stephen Willis and Ken Howard (triples) all helped the cause with one win.
The Wairarapa senior and development squad women's teams were hosted by Kapiti on Sunday with Kapiti winning the senior fixture 8 ½- 3 ½ and the development squad match 8-4.
Jean Paku won a singles for Wairarapa in the senior fixture and other wins there came Shirley Carew and Jan.Monk and Edith Kern and Dorothy Christensen in the pairs. The triple of Karyn Burling, Darkie Barrow and Rose Clement drew one of their games.
Two wins from singles player Tina Hogg was the highlight of the development squad effort.Teresa Hogg also won one of her singles and the fourth success came from the triple of Sandra Butterick, K.Shearer and Mary Willis.