Bowls: Gordon Pairs starts off Bowls Wanganui season

Ray Park

The first Bowls Wanganui centre event of the year was held on Sunday with the Men's Gordon Pairs being played at Wanganui East Bowling Club and the Women's Gordon Pairs being played at Aramoho BC.

Spokesman Ray Wilson said both competitions were keenly contested, with the winners not being known until completion of the final round of games.

In the Men's competition, the two Wanganui Bowling Club pairs – Ray Park, Russell Spence and Bernard Anderson, Fred Westby – won both of their final games to give them a tally of seven wins from eight games, with a differential of +60.

This was good enough to head off both Durie Hill Bowling Club – John Wirihana, Cameron Francis and Ra Mateaparae, Gene Ridgway – along with the Aramoho Bowling Club's John Belliss, Ian Crighton and Ken Smith, Mike Morgan.

Durie Hill and Aramoho also won both their final round games to finish second and third respectively with six victories, Durie Hill edging the differential with +38 compared to +36.

Jill Rohloff

In the Women's competition, after three rounds the standings had Wanganui Bowling Club in first, followed by Durie Hill and Aramoho respectively.

The final round saw Aramoho – Diane Stewart, Sheena Armishaw and Jill Rohloff, May Kaukau – receive two wins from one game played plus a bye, and they moved into to first place with six wins and a differential of +25.

After 10 ends in the final match between Aramoho and Durie Hill, the scores were tied, with Aramoho then scoring on the penultimate end and again in the final end to get the win.

Other results in the final round saw Wanganui East BC – Claire Ellen, Judy Johnston and Marlene Foster, Sue Jermy – win both their games to move into second place with five wins, one draw and a differential of +43.

Wanganui BC – Dianne Patterson, Christine Browne and Dot Belliss, Denise Taylor finished third with five wins, a draw and a +48 differential, with Wanganui East therefore getting second by virtue of having won more ends over the day with 58 versus 52.

For those who would like to try out bowls socially in the coming months, Bowls Wanganui is going to be running a shortened form of the game on Tuesday nights at clubs throughout town, starting at 5pm on November 13.

This version of the game is being screened on SKY Sport on Tuesday's and Wednesday's as the Bowls3Five LIVE competition, from 7-10pm, starting on October 23.