Lawn Bowls

Player of the year points

After the completion of the open and representative events for the 2020/21 season, the respective men’s and women’s player of the year titles are still wide open ahead of the TCM-sponsored champion-of-champions series. In the women’s section, Marlene Barrowman (125) leads the way from team-mate Heather Johns (110). Briar Atkinson and Rhonda Adams are third-equal on 70. In the men’s group, Steve Walker (105) is narrowly ahead of Dean Elgar (100) and Dave Wilson (90). In the champion-of-champions, an event winner collects 45 points, with the runner-up getting 20 and a beaten semifinalist earning 15.

Mens player of the year points

Womens player of the year points

Taranaki was unsuccessful in its bid to qualify in the New Zealand Intercentre bowls event in Wellington over the weekend.

Both the men’s and women’s sides found the going tough to finish third and sixth respectively in their sections. Only the top two provinces from pool play advanced to the quarterfinals.

The Revital Fertilisers Taranaki men were left to rue a dreadful opening day when they lost all three games – Southland (2-1), Auckland (3-0) and Northland (2-1).

They rebounded to clean-sweep victories over the West Coast and South Otago on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough.

Darren Goodin managed three wins in the singles, as did the pair of Daryl Read and Hamish Kape.

The Friday frustrations grew even higher on Sunday, with Southland claiming its maiden victory in the competition, beating Auckland in the final.

Taranaki opened with a 2-1 win over Marlborough in the women’s division. However, the remaining four games were all lost – Manawatu (3-0), Canterbury (2-1), Nelson (3-0) and Thames Valley (2-1).

The pair of Sue Winter and Anne Duggan had two wins, coming in rounds one and three, while the singles and fours had one win each.

Nelson took out the women’s title with a 3-0 victory over Dunedin in the final.

Meanwhile, Tower’s Kerry Mullan claimed the Paul and Sharon Spiers-sponsored Taranaki first year singles at Stratford-Avon on Sunday.

Mullan won the final 21-15 over former provincial rugby rep, Jimmy Quay (Okato). Paritutu’s Sandra Feek and Stratford-Avon’s Kevin Sullivan shared third place. The event attracted a record number of entries.

In the Radius Care-sponsored Taranaki men’s Shield final, Rahotu took out the title for 2021 when it was decided at Tower on Saturday.

Rahotu, the western division winner, finished on three wins from six games, the same as Waitara and Manaia. But Rahotu had the superior differential to reclaim the Shield that it had last held in 2016.

Differential was also required to separate the finalists in the Patron’s Egmont Shield when that was concluded recently. The women’s competition was a repeat of the past two seasons, with Lepperton and Hawera Park again battling it out.

After each club had won one game each, Lepperton got the nod on differential to retain the Shield.

The finalisation of the Taranaki women’s open triples bowls event brought with it significant milestones for all three members of the victorious side at West End on Saturday.

The Paritutu trio of Marie Mummery, Marlene Barrowman and skip Heather Johns did enough, and then held on, to beat a team of clubmates skipped by Cathy Andrews 21-19 in the final of the Abraham’s Funeral Home-sponsored event. Andrews was teamed with Bridget Fletcher and Barbara Batley.

For Mummery it was her maiden Taranaki title and a chance to break through and be considered more than just the wife of Bruce, a fellow bowler.

Barrowman collected her fifth Taranaki title, therefore joining her brother David Bennett in the gold star ranks. Barrowman’s earlier triumphs came in the champion-of-champions fours (2010), the open singles (2012), the open triples (2019) and the open pairs with Johns in December last year.

Johns is likely to still point to her 2013 Dominion fours victory as the most poignant moment she has enjoyed in the sport. Nonetheless, Saturday’s victory was her 10th in Taranaki, enabling her to be awarded a bar to her gold star.

After Andrews’ side had led 4-0, Johns returned in kind to take the advantage 6-4. Through 12 of the 21 ends, Andrews led 10-8.

But then the Johns team won the next six ends to lead 21-10. The lead appeared plenty.

However, Andrews came back with a three, then a four. A further four was required on the last end to tie up the contest. It was on the cards when Fletcher drew two close, but the rest of the head was markedly loose meaning Johns had the luxury of not having to play her last bowl.

Meanwhile, in the Cleggs Funeral Services-sponsored Taranaki men’s open triples, which was decided at Hawera Park on Saturday, West End’s Dave Wilson claimed the title for a second-successive year.

This year Wilson led for Dean Elgar, with the consistent Steve Walker in the middle of the team. Last year, Wilson won the title with Glen Brookes and Bruce Phillips.

The Elgar side ran out comfortable 21-11 victors in the final over Oakura’s Aidan Zittersteijn, Kurt Smith and skip Adam Collins.

Collins led the final 5-2 after four ends. But the next six heads went Elgar’s way and with it a 14-5 lead.

While Collins replied with a two on the next end, Elgar trumped it with a four and a two. Somewhat surprisingly Collins waved the white flag with a difference of 10 but leaving four ends being unplayed.

That was a contrast to the semifinals, where Collins cooly drew the winning shot on the last end to enable his side to upset a Tower team of Mark Kuklinski, John Roberts and Phillips 18-16.

In the other semi, Elgar came from 13-5 down to beat West End’s Steve Temperton, Dennis Osborne and Craig De Faria 19-15.

The Taranaki women’s open triples bowls final will be an all-Paritutu affair.

Experienced, nationally-renown performers Cathy Andrews and Heather Johns both successfully skipped their teams into the final of the Abraham’s-sponsored event at West End on Sunday.

The delayed final will occur on March 13 at the same location.

Andrews has the same team that won the champion-of-champions title in October – Bridget Fletcher and Barbara Batley.

They were 22-15 victors over Lepperton’s Briar Atkinson, Tina Quilter and skip Tina Atkinson-Watt in one semifinal.

Johns won the triples two seasons ago. Her team this time comprises Marie Mummery and Marlene Barrowman. They sneaked through a tense semifinal 15-14 over West End’s Colleen Martin, Molly Nagle and Jan Johnson, but only after an extra end.

The men’s open triples, sponsored by Clegg’s Funeral Services, will also be finalised on March 13, after the 38 entries were reduced to four at Hawera Park over the weekend.

The semifinals will see Bruce Phillips (Tower) play Adam Collins (Oakura) while Dean Elgar and Craig De Faria will square off in an all-West End clash.

Phillips won the title last season skipping a West End side of Glen Brookes and Dave Wilson. But with Brookes unavailable this time because of a family wedding, Phillips is skipping two of the runners-up from 2020 – Mark Kuklinski and John Roberts.

They ended the terrific, spectacular run of Rahotu’s Gavyn Horo, Nathan Goodin and Camron Horo 19-6 in the quarterfinals.

Collins, skipping Aidan Zittersteijn and Kurt Smith, advanced 21-19 over Paul Darbyshire (West End). The leading of Zittersteijn, who recently joined Oakura but also remains a member of Paritutu, proved the difference.

Elgar skips Wilson and Steve Walker. They comfortably defeated Opunake’s Rodney Woods 29-9 in the last eight.

De Faria, who is teamed with Steve Temperton and Dennis Osborne, ousted Opunake’s Paddy Deegan 22-9 in the same round.

Meanwhile, the Revital Fertilisers Taranaki representative teams for the New Zealand Intercentre in Wellington on March 18-21 have been released.

The women’s side sees Chris Commane play the singles – she won three from five in the recent Octagonal – while the pair is Sue Winter and Anne Duggan. Not surprisingly, selector Janice Ropitini has maintained her unbeaten four of Anne Brophy, Susan Cottam, Rhonda Adams and Trish Howard. Anne Potaka is the eighth player.

In the men’s, Darren Goodin will play the singles, with Daryl Read and Hamish Kape the pair. The four is Gerry O’Sullivan, Aidan Zittersteijn, Steve Walker and Dean Elgar. John Garrud will travel as the eighth player. Craig De Faria had been originally selected in that position, but withdrew because of work commitments.

Taranaki again had to be content with the minor placings as Wellington strode away with the titles in the central regional Octagonal bowls fixture in Kapiti on Sunday.

Wellington won both the men’s and women’s events with a degree of comfort ahead of the other seven centres.

Revtial Fertilisers Taranaki finished second in the women’s section with 16.5 wins, the same as third-placed Hawke’s Bay, but well short of Wellington, which took 19.5 games.

Wellington won 21.5 games from 28 in the men’s event, with Manawatu (19) and Taranaki (16.5) filling the minor placings.

In the women’s event, both the Taranaki triples and fours excelled. The four of Anne Brophy, Susan Cottam, Rhonda Adams and skip Trish Howard won five and drew two. They could not be bettered by any side, a result that should bode the team in good stead for the intercentre next month.

A brand-new triples side was used, with Ella Smailes, Anne Potaka and skip Robyn Klenner winning five from seven. One loss occurred on the last end to Hawke’s Bay, while one of the victories came over Wellington’s Nicole Toomey, who last month won the Dominion singles.

Chris Commane won three from five in the singles, before skipping the pairs on Sunday.

Anne Duggan and Jackie Moeahu had a win and a draw from the opening two days in the pairs, with Moeahu gaining another one in the singles on Sunday.

Like the women, the men started off in spectacular fashion, with four straight wins. However, aside from the fours, it was a mixed bag after that.

Selector Allan Batley took the opportunity over the last three rounds to change the team disciplines. In the final wash-up, Gerry O’Sullivan was the best performed Taranaki man, finishing with six wins and one draw. The last three victories came in the triples, after O’Sullivan had acted as director in the fours in the previous rounds.

Darren Goodin opened with four wins on the trot in the singles, but three narrow defeats followed. That included a 25-20 loss in the last game to Wellington’s Seamus Curtin who won all seven.

The original pair of Hamish Kape and Stefan McCartain had two each-way, before being tried elsewhere. McCartain won three more in the triples, while Kape had a win each in the triples and the fours.

From five outings, Dean Elgar skipped the four to four wins and a draw, with Daryl Read and Aidan Zittersteijn up front. It was one of the highlights of the side’s effort. Elgar and Read had a win and a loss when they played pairs in the last two rounds.

The triple of John Garrud, Steve Walker and Craig De Faria won one from four before being moved. De Faria finished with two wins overall, while Garrud and Walker had three.

In the under-eights hexagonal in Palmerston North, Wellington won the women’s and Hawke’s Bay the men’s section. Taranaki were third in both, with the individual highlights being the five successive wins by the women’s four of Ma Arapo, Amanda Crehan, Cheryll Sharrock and Hazel Schwartfeger, and the four-from-five effort by Briar Atkinson in the singles.

Representative bowls resumes on Friday when Revital Fertilisers Taranaki contests the central region Octagonal event in Kapiti.

The three-day tournament, over seven rounds, will give men’s selector Allan Batley and his women’s counterpart Janice Ropitini the last chance to try combinations ahead of the national competition next month.

The Octagonal, which was reborn in New Plymouth in fine style last February, features the eight centres in the North Island from Taranaki across to Gisborne/East Coast and south to Wellington.

A feature of the event will be the ability of the selectors to change players between disciplines each round.

Batley has initially picked Darren Goodin as the men’s singles player, while a new pairs combination of Hamish Kape and Stefan McCartain will be tried.

Dean Elgar starts off skipping a four of Daryl Read, Aidan Zittersteijn and Gerry O’Sullivan.

The triples team is John Garrud, Steve Walker and Craig De Faria. That trio, along with Elgar, Neil Candy, John Roberts and an impressive Bruce Colgan, recently took out the Paul and Sharon Spiers-sponsored Taranaki men’s division one interclub title.

In the playoffs on their home green, West End finished with 14 points, ahead of two-time defending champion Paritutu and Hawera Park (both 9) and Oakura (4).

Ropiniti has selected Chris Commane initially in the singles. Commane won the champion-of-champions title in October and was last month runner-up to Rhonda Adams in the open singles.

Anne Duggan has been added to the squad and will lead for Jackie Moeahu in the pairs, while the starting triples team is Ella Smailes, Anne Potaka and skip Robyn Klenner.

Trish Howard heads the four of Anne Brophy, Susan Cottam and Adams.

On Saturday and Sunday the under-eights representative teams contest a hexagonal event in Palmerston North.

The women’s team is Briar Atkinson, Norma Jane, Rita Davey, Shelley Clark, Tina Quilter, Francis Busby, Ma Arapo, Amanda Crehan, Cheryll Sharrock and Hazel Schwartfeger.

The men’s side is Evan Jones, Bruce Colgan, Kelly Hill, Laurence Hori, Steve Sabine, Corey Brookes, Steve Temperton, Ryan Vincent, Kurt Smith and Bruce Lilley.

Meanwhile, a number of extended tournaments are set to take place over the coming weeks. One of the first to occur was the West End men’s over 60s, which was finalised on Wednesday. Sponsored by Vospers, the three-day event was won by one of the most clubbable of all bowlers, Frank Klenner. Klenner skipped his Inglewood team of Murray Dalton and Neil Earley to first place.

Oakura’s Wayne Robinson was second, ahead of West End’s Paul Darbyshire and rugby enthusiast Kevin Gledhill (Paritutu). John Garrud (West End) took out the second division.