Bowls: Castle on the green to lead Auckland

One of New Zealand's greatest women's bowlers, Marlene Castle, will make a comeback to major competition when she spearheads the Auckland side in this weekend's regional intercentre play-offs at the Howick club.

Castle is skipping promising Henderson bowler Jo Babich in the pairs.

But Castle emphasised that her appearance for Auckland did not indicate a return to the international stage, from which she stepped down in 2004 after having achieved a career highlight with the world indoor title in 2000.

"I'm the Auckland high-performance manager, so I think I owe it to the centre to play at the rep level," she said.

A total of 128 bowlers, men and women, from the Auckland, North Harbour, Northland and Far North centres will compete at the Howick and Pakuranga greens today and tomorrow in open, open reserves, development and one-to-five-year levels.

However, only the winners in the open and development sections will go on to national finals.

Though three Commonwealth Games representatives - Jamie Hill, Rowan Brassey and Serena Matthews - will be missing, there will be a sprinkling of top bowlers in the sides.

Wendy Jensen, another former international, has transferred from Counties-Manukau and as the singles player will join Castle in the Auckland side.

And in an intriguing clash of families, Grant Goodwin will be Auckland's singles men's player, while his son, Justin, who is playing in the Commonwealth Games, will play for Harbour in the pairs with Neven Grgicevich.

Despite the presence of Castle and Jensen in their line-up, Auckland will be far from outright favourites in the women's open. Northland also look especially strong with three of last year's national championship title winners, Anne Muir, Anne Bateman and Janice McLean in their line-up. Similarly, North Harbour loom as a threat to Auckland in the men's open.

The first two rounds will be played today starting at 1pm and the final tomorrow at 9am.