Ruth Lynch put her bowls before her work as a chef yesterday and one who was delighted she did so was her Birkenhead skip, Carole Fredrick.
Instead of cooking lunch at a North Shore rest home, Lynch played at three in Fredrick's four in the national championship women's fours finalat Carlton-Cornwall in Auckland and proved a key player in Birkenhead's 18-16 win over Sue Burnand's defending champions.
After starting slowly, and being down 14-7 after 11 ends, Burnand's composite side of the Boyd sisters, Mandy and Angela, and Leanne Curry, known as "Slam" after the first initial in each's Christian name, recovered to grab the lead 16-15 on the 16th end.
But with Lynch, the holder of 15 North Harbour centre titles, playing some crucial shots, Birkenhead reasserted themselves to pick up two on the 17th end and a single on the 18th to win 18-16.
Fredrick, who won a fours title in 1999 when skipped by Marlene Castle, was quick to praise Lynch."She played some wonderful bowls and got us out of trouble many times."
Completing Frederick's line-up were two Gayle Melrose, once a leading yachtswoman in round-the-world races, and Lisa Helmling, who has just graduated from the junior (under five years' playing) ranks.
In men's bowls, especially, cases of players from the one club winning the nationals as a team have become a rarity, with composite sides having won the last nine fours titles.
Club combinations, as was the Birkenhead side yesterday, even if all the players still have associations with other clubs, have been much more common among the women.
The previous national champions from the one club were Nelson's United two years ago.
Yesterday's narrow loss may have been heartbreaking for Mandy Boyd, who also made the singles and pairs finals in which again she was the runner-up. But the 20-year old was far from downcast at being three times a bridesmaid.
"I was just pleased I was able to make three finals," she said.
As consolation, too, the Wellington fine arts student won the tournament's consistency prize for women, giving her total prize money of $1900.
