Bowls is a game for all ages. At the weekend bowls became a game for all seasons and the players could never be accused of not being stoic.
On Saturday the bowlers were sent out in the showers and gale-force winds - some of the strongest seen in Tauranga - to contest the important inter-club regional qualifying when other local sport such as club cricket was cancelled and a windless, sunny Sunday was scheduled as a reserve day, obviously because of inclement weather.
One of the most eagerly awaited competitions of the season became a battle of attrition against the elements rather than a display of finesse and consistency.
After being battered and bruised in the brutal bowling conditions, the players would have woken up on a still Sunday with a sinking feeling: "Why didn't we play today."
Hamilton's Frankton Railway outmuscled the opposition to run away with the men's division one at the Tauranga South club and qualify for the national inter-club final in Auckland.
Singles player Raika Gregory, pairs skip Dwayne Cameron, and Wayne Stewart and Phil Bennett in the fours - all accomplished players - have powerful drives and they rightly played to the conditions.
When they were down on the heads they swatted the shot bowls away with their accurate driving and gained the ascendancy. Normally at this level of competition consistent drawing succeeds. But this wasn't a normal day.
The kitty moved in the big gusts and at times the players had to deliver their bowls almost against the bias to reach the target.
Frankton Railway lost two of their three matches in the first round but then powered ahead by winning the remainder of their games to overtake pacesetters Tauranga South, playing on their home green and capturing five wins from their first six games.
Frankton finished with seven wins and 14 points, ahead of Tauranga South 10 points, Papakura 6 and Coromandel 4.
The final singles match between South's Robbie Frelan and Coromandel's Colin Gawith, who were locked in a close battle, did not need to be completed.
In the crunch games, South's four of Phil Harris, Jim Martin, Tony Parkinson and Graeme Heward beat Frankton's Stewart, Bennett, Gene Gregory and Hopa Bell 11-9 after Harris ran the kitty into the ditch for the winning shot on his last bowl.
Raika Gregory beat Frelan 25-19 in the second round, and in the crucial third round the Ian Gordon-skipped Papakura four beat Harris 21-15 after the South team trailed 4-13.
Cameron and Henry Te Moni beat the South pair of Graham Skellern and John Simons 26-10 after the South's wheels fell off during the last five ends when the score was 11-10.
A well-balanced Gate Pa side, with high hopes of success, was disappointed not to get into its stride in the division two men's contest and another Hamilton team, Frankton Junction, romped away with the regional qualifying.
Frankton Junction lost only one match, drew another and won seven games to collect 15 points, ahead of Waiuku 12, Gate Pa 7 and Waitoa 2.
Gate Pa finally came to grips with the windy conditions, remaining unbeaten in the final round. Cameron Higgins won his singles against Waitoa 25-13, the pair of Mike Hammond and Ross Fleming beat Waiuku 23-14 and the four of Kenny Horswell, Paul McQueen, Mark Hendry and Dylan Murphy drew 11-all with the Cliff Francis-skipped Frankton four.
There was some Bay success on Saturday at the Arawa club when home side Rotorua won the women's division one with 11 points (five wins and a draw) ahead of favoured Hillcrest 9 points, Paeroa 8 and minus 20 shots and Manurewa Cosmopolitan 8 and minus 32.
The Rotorua club now joins five other regional qualifiers for the national inter-club final in Auckland on March 22-23.
Former national champions Matua were disappointed with their start in the women's division two qualifying, winning just one of their first six matches.
An unbeaten third round pulled them into third place with 8 points, behind winners Te Awamutu on 14 points and Waitoa 10 and ahead of Manurewa Cosmopolitan 4.
On Monday, the Bay's singles champions Wendy Green, who played just one game, and Kevin Maxfield failed to progress past the regional qualifying for the New Zealand Club championships in strange circumstances.
Green ended up having a bye in the first round after the Frankton Junction representative failed to turn up at the Papakura club and then lost 23-25, after trailing 6-20, to Margaret Henderson of Paeroa.
Qualifier Henderson had won her first game by 20 shots and then had the bye in the third round so Green didn't need to play again and her day was done by lunchtime - after all the hard work she had put in beforehand to reach that stage.
Maxfield lost to eventual qualifier Waikato's Allan Stewart 25-19 in the first round and then beat Waihi's Kevin Allen 25-21 and Papatoetoe's Jim Campbell by the same score.
Stewart, a national talent development squad member, played beautifully to remain unbeaten, but he said afterwards he didn't know whether he could make the national final in Invercargill because of work commitments and costs.
There was a quick conversation with Bowls NZ to see if the runner-up, in this case Maxfield, would go to the final instead but there's no provision for this in the tournament rules.
The players are "rewarded" for reaching the national final by having to pay their own transport costs, and for Stewart, a young bowler, it means forking out at least $500 to fly to Invercargill.