Bowls: Top bowlers too close to separate

By LINDSAY KNIGHT

Carlton club stalwarts Petar Sain and Wally Marsic capped an outstanding season yesterday when they jointly won the Auckland Bowler of the Year award.

Sain and Marsic

achieved a feat, believed without precedent in New Zealand bowls, when they won not only the national pairs title in Wellington, but also their club and Auckland centre titles.

They also won the centre champion of champion pairs and were in the four who won that discipline's champion of champions title.

Sain's success gave him his Auckland centre gold star, and his pairs win in Wellington was his fourth national success.

He was the national singles champion in 1991 and again in 2000. In 1999 he was skip of the champion fours team.

Sain and Marsic are the first joint winners of Auckland bowls' highest honour. The selection panel, headed by former national champion and centre selector George Alley, found it impossible to separate the achievements of the pair.

The other finalists were two international bowlers, Rowan Brassey and Jamie Hill, and Avondale's Mike Reid. These three were all part of the Avondale combination who won the national fours title.

Brassey has won the award six times. Other winners since its introduction in 1977 have included Nick Unkovich, Ivan Kostanich, Danny O'Connor, Gary Lawson, Marsic's brother Ivan, Elsie Wilkie and Marlene Castle.

Howick were named Auckland's club of the year.