Tower

A long-held family dream of the Ranford brothers combining in the Taranaki men’s Open fours is coming true this week.

Four brothers from the famed Hāwera family – Bill, John, Keith and Peter junior – commenced the Open playing at the West End greens in New Plymouth yesterday.

“It’s been a long-time coming,” said Bill, the eldest.

The Ranford family were mighty contributors to the Nolantown club, where father Peter senior, like Bill, became a life member.

An entrepreneur and go-getter, Peter senior was instrumental in establishing the richest bowls prize in Taranaki, the Nolantown classic.

The tournament remains popular, and has been held at the Tower club ever since Nolantown merged with Hāwera.

While the brothers, who also have two sisters, grew up at Nolantown club, Bill acknowledged it was mother Noelene that had been the glue that kept the family together.

The initial desire to play together was sparked by another brother, Ron, who now lives in New Plymouth and plays for Fitzroy.

“I had asked them for years to join together,” Ron said. “But they were always too busy – until this year.”

Unfortunately for Ron, when the brothers made the call earlier in the season he had already committed to another side.

But there is some consolation – and initial bragging rights.

The brothers are all staying with Ron for the week. And while the four Ranford brothers lost both games on the opening day – including a second-round defeat to last year’s runner-up Raymond Martin (Victoria) – Ron’s side, which is skipped by Bill Johnston, had a win and a loss.

The loss against Martin showed the Ranford brothers are still more than capable, as they clawed back into the match but fell short, just, 22-20 against one of the tournament favourites.

A victorious Taranaki bowls team has returned disheartened after thieves took off with the bowls which won them the championship.

The Hawera women’s bowls team won the New Zealand Women’s second division interclub title against Raumati South, at the Carlton Cornwall Club in Auckland on Monday.

It was a career highlight for the team of Maureen Tamou, Jo Bloor, Faye Hopkins, Diana Rowe, Thelma Edgar, Betty Fraser and Patty Symes.

“We were on a very, very big high all the way to Hamilton,” team manager Kristin Stampa said.

However, their victory was overshadowed by thieves at a McDonald’s in the Hamilton suburb Frankton who broke into their van and stole all of the bowling bags, containing the champion bowls, she said.

“They were angry. It’s pretty bittersweet, it just marred everything for us,” she said.

“We were only in there 30 minutes.”

Stampa’s work laptop and cellphone were also taken.

Despite the distressing situation, they could still laugh about the situation to a point, Stampa said.

“We reckon they thought they were stealing luggage because who would take bowling bags?

“So we saw the funny side of it.”

Before heading into the fast-food outlet, Stampa said she had taken notice of the car which was pulled up beside the team van, which seemed to be leaving its motor running for an unusually long time despite the two male occupants not being in hurry to go anywhere.

Stampa said she thought she might not have locked the van properly and felt at fault for the theft.

However, when they were driving out of Hamilton a cold breeze led them to discover the culprits had removed a small triangle pane of glass in order to let themselves in, she said.

“The police woman, she asked what model the van was and I told her and she went, ‘oh, they’re really easy to break into’.”

Each bowl set would cost up to $800 to replace for the seven bowlers, and wet weather gear and bowling accessories worth hundreds of dollars were also stolen, Stampa said.

“But a person’s bowls, it’s like your jewellery – it’s special to you.

“It’ll often have a special emblem on it which identifies you. When they play a shot, you look at the bowl and then you look at the person because you know who it belongs to.

“Losing that, losing your bowls is just like chopping an arm off.”

The team was grateful no one was hurt in the process, but that didn’t mean they weren’t “brassed off” by the situation.

She was also confused at the items the thieves didn’t take, including a GPS unit and cellphone.

“The silly part is they took some food out of the chilly bin and not what had been sitting out above as well.”

That being said, it would take a lot to dampen their spirits following their national win, Stampa said.

Having scraped through in the first round and taking out Browns Bay, the tournament favourites, in the sudden death round, it was an impressive win for the team, she said.

“It was an awesome effort to do this against the big cities.”

Hamilton police had not been in contact with Stampa on Tuesday with an update, she said.

“But I know if there was an option between buying all new sets, or having their own gear back, I know which option they would choose – they’d want their old stuff back.”

stuff.co.nz/national/crime/78138291/hawera-womens-bowls-team-gets-their-championship-bowls-stolen

Hannah Lee

The Anderson name has long been associated with award-winning pies but their record in bowls is equally impressive.

On Saturday, at Paritutu, Brendan Anderson became the fourth member of the dynasty to reach bowls glory when he claimed his gold star for five Taranaki titles as a member of the winning triples team in the TCM-sponsored champion-of-champions finals weekend.

Anderson combined with his brothers, Grant and Mark, to take out the title, posting an 18-11 victory in the decider over Inglewood’s Steve Sabine, Bernard O’Sullivan and Graham Reive. The Tower side led from the outset in the final, with Brendan joining Grant and Mark, plus father Brian, in the gold star ranks.

Brendan Anderson’s earlier successes have all come in champion-of-champions events, all of which were decided at Paritutu – the pairs (2016 and 2017), the junior singles (2017) and the fours (2019).

There was double delight for Tower, when on an adjacent rink on Saturday morning, Jane Augustine collected her fourth Taranaki title when her quartet claimed a four on the last end to pip Paritutu’s Cathy Andrews 13-12 in the decider.

It was a brilliant result for Augustine’s team of Geneva Barnard, Hazel Schwartfeger and Frances Busby, as they each claimed their first Taranaki titles.

Andrews’ team comprised Amanda Crehan, Marlene Barrowman and Barbara Batley.

Hawera Park’s Ella Smailes and Kristin Stampa completed a double when they firstly won the triples, with Pauline Kennedy, and then the pairs.

In the triples they defeated New Plymouth’s Liz Corbett, Colleen Day and Val Fleming 17-14, while in the pairs they posted a 19-15 win over Barrowman and Heather Johns (Paritutu).

Paritutu’s Darren Goodin underlined his class with an emphatic 21-4 win over Fitzroy’s Tony McAlevey in the senior men’s singles. In the women’s senior singles, Chris Commane (Opunake) make it back-to-back victories in the event when she beat Andrews 21-11.

The men’s fours resulted in a victory for the Opunake team of Daryl MacKenzie, Len Reader, Kewene Ratahi and Paddy Deegan. They won the final 16-9 over Oakura’s Don Hinton, Murray Crombie, Paul Coxhead and Steve Muller. Muller’s side had scored an upset 12-11 win over Paritutu’s Hamish Kape in the earlier semifinals, while Deegan’s quartet had accounted for Waitara’s John Ape-Esera 18-8.

Bowls Taranaki Executive Officer, Tina Atkinson-Watt (Lepperton), repeated the effort of her daughter, Briar, when she claimed the junior women’s singles title 21-9 over Debra Kalin (West End). Briar Atkinson won the same title in the previous season.

The men’s junior singles was a battle between two cousins, with Hohepa Murray (Vogeltown) getting the nod 21-17 over Levi Davis (Opunake).

* The last of the finals was completed on Sunday, with Sabine and Reive overturning their triples defeat to win the pairs. Reive’s skipping proved the difference in the finale, as he and Sabine edged out Vogeltown’s Nick Payne and Grant Hassall 16-15 on an extra end.