The Wanganui Bowling Club men were far from disgraced at the inaugural National Men's Champion of Champions Fours tournament in Hawke's Bay at the weekend.
Attempting to emulate or better the club's women who finished third equal in their national fours, the men made it to the top eight at the Bowls Hastings complex before being put out in the quarter finals by eventual runners-up, the Tony Grantham-skipped four (Brendan Kelly, Sean Mulholland, Denis Bawden) from Brown's Bay.
Ray Park (skip), Bernard Anderson (three), Alan Dickson (two) and Russell Spence (lead) lost 21-11 to Grantham's team. Grantham four went on to beat Aiden Takarua from Pt Chevalier 17-5 to reach the final against Trevor Reader (s), Paul Price, Steve Smith and Paul Shotter from Whangarei. The Grantham-skipped four went down 16-12 to the new national champions.
Earlier in the month Grantham won the National Champion of Champions Men's Singles title in Naenae when he walloped Dean Elgar from the West End Bowling Club in Taranaki 21-6.
