After an absence of 10 years, the coastal club is back firing on all cylinders, which includes competing in this week’s Taranaki women’s Open fours.
The club, best remembered for the likes of Howard Andrews, Raewyn McEldowney and Val McEldowney, has been a mens-only entity for the past 10 years, after the women’s division fell into recess.
That was until the likes of Linda Kape and Fiona Liddall brought it back into life. There are now seven affiliated women bowlers, with four of them taking part this week – Kape, Alesha Quay, Ashleigh Megaw and Bernie Butler.
Kape is the most experienced of the quartet, coming from a family of bowlers, including husband Ken and sons, Jamie and Hamish. Prior to this season, she had played one event, 10 years ago.
She is the team skip – or “mum” as her three younger teammates, who are all first-year players, refer to her as.
All of them were introduced to bowls through the active social games that are run at Okato. And while the side is yet to register a win this week, meaning it cannot qualify for post section, they are learning quickly, and most importantly, having a lot of fun.
Among the tips they have picked up is documenting their misdemeanours, like recording the wrong score, walking down the other end at the incorrect time or swearing. There’s $20 up for grabs, a pointer they picked up from the vastly experienced and successful Tauranga teamed skipped by Mary Campbell in the first game.
“We mingle afterwards, but bring good attitudes. We hope to be back next year for revenge!” Kape said.
There are seven sides that have recorded four straight-wins, meaning they have already qualified. They are Patty Symes (Tower), Campbell, Teo Thoresen (Central Levin), Margaret Taylor (Waitara), Lesley McLinden (Royal Oak), Alison Winter (Central Cambridge) and Dot Collis (Waitarere Beach).
Defending champion Alison Rennie (Carlton Cornwall), whose side was skipped on Wednesday by Louise Fitness, suffered its second loss of the Open, going down 26-24 to Cindy Nicoll (Inglewood) in the afternoon. Nicoll drew a front toucher on the last end to win it.
In the same position as Nicoll, needing two wins on Thursday are Gayle Melrose (Papakura), Natarsha Grimshaw (Kia Toa) and Wendy Green (Ngongotaha). The latter two both rebounded from double defeats on Tuesday to win both matches.
Grant Hassall