Bowls: Carlton claim their 20th title

By Graham Skellern

CHRISTCHURCH - It was very appropriate that Auckland club Carlton, the firm with the proudest record in New Zealand bowls, should bring the club feeling back into the national men's championships.

With all the talk about having composite "dream teams," centre teams, champion-of-champions and so on to ginger up the National Insurance-sponsored tournament, talented clubmates and great friends Petar Sain (skip), Nick Krajancic, Ivan Zonich and Alf Dickens turned back the years after winning the fours title in Christchurch yesterday.

When the four mates beat a Wanganui combination of centre representatives Ray Park (skip), Chris Waterson (Wanganui), Sean Johnson (Aramoho) and Ian Broderson (Durie Hill) 24-22 in the final, they were only the third true-blue club side in 15 years to capture the blue riband teams event.

"We are just a club team. But I told Alf - he can vouch for it - that when the draw came out after qualifying we would play Ray Park in the final. And we did it," said a confident Sain, who collected his second national championship after winning the singles in Wellington in 1991.

For Krajancic, Zonich and Dickens, all determined and gutsy bowlers, it was their first national title. And their names go on a famous roll of honour at the Carlton club, which has now won 20 national championships - far ahead of the next best club, Okahu Bay, with nine.

"Winning the fours is more enjoyable because there's more of us to celebrate the victory," said Sain, who was also runner-up in Dunedin two years ago. "The club in its present form is winding down and this might be Carlton's last national title. It's all fallen into a place, a bit of history."

The 105-year-old Carlton club, located underneath the Newmarket Viaduct in Auckland, is planning to sell up this year and move to a new multi-million-dollar complex at the Ellerslie Racecourse in association with the Auckland Commerce Club.

The tense final, in hot, but tricky blustery conditions at the Hoon Hay club, ebbed and flowed throughout the 21 ends, though Sain's side never lost the initiative. There was never more than three points difference between the finalists, but Park got in front only three times, 12-11 on the 11th end, 18-17 on the 15th and 21-19 on the 17th.