Two Tauranga combinations qualified for the national club championship finals in Invercargill next month after fun and games in regional qualifying.
The week-long qualifying for a national title was marred by the uncertainty of some players wanting to pay the costs of their air fares to the South Island and by the non-appearance of some qualifiers at the Papakua club.
Tauranga South's Phil Harris and the two John Simons had two big wins in the triples but another strong side, Waikato qualifiers Steve and Nick Posa and Dave Kneepkens (Hillcrest), didn't front.
The South side cruised through, beating Glenn Newton (Clarks Beach) 24-7 and John Pullan (Paeroa) 25-4.
Mount Maunganui's Steve Beel, Lance Tasker, Dean Worrall and Paul Anderson also had two comfortable wins, beating Frankton Railways' Dwayne Cameron, Wayne Stewart, Hopa Bell and Henry Te Moni 19-6 and Manurewa's Shane Drabble, Royce Berryman, Dave Emirali and Ian Campbell 20-13.
The Mount had a convincing lead of 4 points and plus 20 shots after two rounds, and although both opposition had a chance, they called it quits.
Beel's side had qualified for the national final for the second successive year but there was a dramatic finish to their game against Drabble.
The score was tied 13-all with one end to play. Mount held three shots on the final end but Drabble killed it. On the replay, Drabble again drove and took out all his team's four bowls, ending up seven down. With his last bowl, he elected to run the kitty into the ditch but just missed.
The pairs of Doug Russell/Merv Gibbons (Mount) and Wendy Green/Lynnette McIntosh (Taupo) lost out on the barest of margins.
The Mount pair started their qualifying in fine style by beating Cameron and Te Moni 27-9, but lost their next two games to Manurewa's Chris Warren/Bill Jones 18-17 and Coromandel's Colin Gawith/Paul Farrand 21-15.
Against Warren, Russell dropped a five on the second to last end, after earlier picking up a similar amount, and at 17-all on the final end Jones drew one close and Russell tried valiantly but failed to remove the bowl.
Warren scrapped through to reach the national final after trailling by 10 shots on the final end against Cameron who dropped a four to win 21-15. Warren finished up with two wins and minus two shots to Cameron's two and minus three.
Green and McIntosh easily lost their first match to Hillcrest's Doreen Schumacher/Rose Harris 24-13 but fought back to beat Debra Collins/Maria Darwin (Papakura) 18-17 and Lindsay Grant/Dolly Welch (Coromandel) 15-14. But Grant qualified with 2 wins and plus 16 to Green's 2 and minus 9.
The Bay's other qualifiers - mixed pairs Marcus and Jasmine Merrick (Kawerau), triples of Raewayn Willis, Patsy Jorgensen, Nita Cowper (Mount), and fours of Sue Taylor, Jean Morris, Carol Rough, Dianne Ratcliffe (Matua) - lost their first two matches and quickly fell out of contention. Those disciplines were won by Neville Risbridge/Carol Cox (Tokoroa), Jan Jones from Manurewa, and Sue Burnand (Frankton Railway).
The Bay's champion of champion fours reached the closing rounds at the weekend. The men were down to the last seven when showers stopped play mid-afternoon on Sunday at the Omanu club.
Tauranga South's Graham Skellern, Stu Owen, Graeme Sigley, David Turley retained two lives after beating Taupo 14-13 in the fourth round and collecting the bye.
Colin Rolfe's Arawa upset Rotorua's Stu Robertson, another two lifer, 19-10, while the Ian Mason-skipped Omokoroa side beat Neil Wilson's Te Puke 19-12, Mount beat the George Hooper-skipped Katikati team 20-4, and Gate Pa beat Dean Stewart's Papamoa Sports combination 19-12.
Arawa is now playing Omokoroa, Gate Pa's Cameron Higgins, Mike Hammond, Trevor Powell, Ross Fleming meets Mount's Kevin Maxfield, Hugh Jorgensen, Allan Jones, Maurice Hickey, and Rotorua and Taupo face up in the next round to be decided at a later date.
The women reached the last three, all one lifers, at the Arawa club with Mount's Norma Gallager, Barbara Fitzgerald, Alison Reilly, Dianne Hazelton having a bye to the final.
Mount beat the only two-lifer Ngongotaha 12-10 in the sixth round, and Ngongotaha now plays Papamoa's Jean Wright, Faye Scott, Lorraine Dun and Ann Fox in the next round.