Bowls: Auckland looking good

By GRAHAM SKELLERN

The Auckland men's and women's bowls teams charged into strong positions to make the national inter-centre final after another successful outing in the Northern Regional League yesterday.

The Auckland men lost just one individual game, and drew another, to dominate Thames Valley and Northland at the Henderson club on day two of the league.

Auckland collected 29 points to take a healthy lead over the other seven centres with a total of 46, followed by Bay of Plenty (351/2 points), Thames Valley 31 and Counties Manukau 30.

But the defending champions, Bay of Plenty, are still well placed after thrashing first-day performers North Harbour 121/2 to 31/2 at Warkworth.

And Auckland will pick up only single points (instead of two points for a win) in their head-to-head with a resurgent Counties Manukau in the third round on January 16.

The Auckland women picked up 10 wins and a draw at Henderson, and even though they were headed by Northland on 11 wins and a draw, it was enough to take the outright lead.

Auckland has 43 points from two rounds, with Northland on 31 points, North Harbour 301/2 and Far North 29.

The top two men's and women's teams after the four rounds of the league are joined by the leading two sides in the lower North Island and South Island for the reinstated national final next year.

The Auckland men's academy players of 12 years and under experience showed their seniors the way by winning all of their eight matches.

After letting a big lead slip on the first day's play, Auckland's singles player Chris Salesa this time fought back from 14-24 to beat Northland's Eric Pattillo 31-27.

Auckland international Rowan Brassey also had to work hard to beat Northland's experienced John Dunn 31-29 after being behind 3-13 and 12-20.

Auckland's only loss came on the fateful final end of the fours match when skip Ivan Marsic just missed drawing the winning shot after the Thames Valley skip Stu Freeman had blasted the jack into the ditch.

Freeman won 18-17. The pairing of Tony Garelja/Gavin Brown drew 15-all with Northland's Neil Campbell/Graham Wintle.

The Bay of Plenty singles players gained valuable scalps with Lance Tasker beating national triallist Kerry Chapman 31-29, and in the battle of the wily campaigners Sid Giddy beat Ivan Kostanich 31-28.

The Counties Manukau men fired in the afternoon by winning seven of their eight matches to head the more favoured Waikato side - Counties' efforts being underpinned with four singles victories.

The Northland women trimmed Auckland's lead with a strong performance by their academy players who won seven of their eight matches. But Auckland's senior women put in a powerful, unbeaten effort in the afternoon to cement their position.

Their singles players had comfortable wins, with Carol Griffiths beating Northland's Caroline Downs 31-15 and Fay Yates overcoming Thames Valley's Daph Stephens 31-15.