Around the greens

VAL SMITH WINNERS: Ginny Sherriff and Charlie Ure show off the Evelyn Mills Memorial Cup after topping a strong field in Poverty Bay Bowling Club’s annual Val Smith Mixed Pairs tournament at the weekend. Picture supplied

Poverty BayThe Val Smith Mixed Pairs tournament held last weekend was an enormous success.

Charlie Ure and Ginny Sherriff came out at the head of a field of 24 teams for this premier event of the Poverty Bay club’s programme.

Glenys Whiteman and Ray Young were runners-up.

Trevor Mills presented the Evelyn Mills Memorial Cup to the winners, and Pip Griffin, representing tournament sponsor Kiri Te Kanawa Retirement Village, presented the Peck Tray to the runners-up.

Playing conditions were near perfect for most of the two days, despire the dire predictions of the weather forecast.

The programme was for two sections, each of 12 teams, to play alternately on Poverty Bay’s carpet green and on the Gisborne club’s natural rinks using a 2x4x2 format playing four games of 10 ends. A time limit of 105 minutes applied.

In Section 1, five teams had three wins after Saturday’s play. After Sunday’s play, seven teams were competing for the three prizes.

George and Anita Vaotuua accumulated six wins and won 48 ends to take first place, followed by Murray and Pat Murton with six wins and 46 ends.

Out of the five contenders for third place, Bruce Ball and Di Christie — with five wins and 48 ends — had one end more than last year’s overall winner Dayvinia Mills and her new team member Alastair Macpherson.

Both of this section’s top teams lost their first and last games.

Ian Greeks and Karen Higgins had two very creditable wins. They beat the Vaotuua pair in Game 1 of Day 1 and the Mills/Macpherson pair in Game 2 of Day 2.

In Section 2, the contenders for prizes after Saturday were headed by Ure and Sherriff, ahead of Whiteman and Young. Each pair had three wins and a draw for 10 points, and just one end separated them.

Dawson Owen and Robyn Arthur were running third with three wins.

After play on Sunday, those places remained the same but Ben and Sarah Brown, and Queenie Takurua and Bruce Gledhill were close to the Owen/Arthur pair.

When the two sections were combined, the overall winners were Ure and Sherriff with Whiteman and Young as runners-up.

They both won additional prizes to add to their section awards.

It was good to see several junior players taking part this year.

The Owen/Arthur pair deserve special mention. Their last game on Saturday against the experienced pairing of Sarah and Ben Brown was caught by a deluge of rain that flooded the green at the Gisborne club.

Although they were called to end their game, the score was 9-9 and they were playing the last end, so they stayed on the “lake”.

To see four drenched players sending down bowls in the lake was funny enough. To see them deciding the winner by measuring under water was probably unprecedented and will be the subject of many future clubhouse tales.

That measure was the one-end difference between the two pairs for the prizes in their section.

COMING UP

March 2 and 3: Mixed triples club championships.

March 15: RSA (women’s section) open mixed tournament.

March 20: Beetham Village-sponsored open mixed triples progressive tournament.