They will play at the Royal Oak club on Friday and the headquarters club Howick on Saturday.
The men’s team are in a section of six teams, the others being Dunedin, Nelson, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Taranaki.
John Kanawa plays the singles and in a really strong field his opponents include former Gisborne East Coast bowler and now double world champion Blackjack Shannon McIlroy (Nelson), Taranaki’s Dean Elgar, who skipped the winning team in the recent national fours and has also won two national singles titles, and Dunedin’s Mike Kernaghan, another Blackjack with national titles to his name. Chris Lourie, younger brother of local bowler Bruno Lourie, is the Waikato singles player.
Jamey Ferris (skip) and Steve Goldsbury in the pairs also face some prominent bowlers from the other five centres. They include Richard Collett and Peter Hodson (Nelson); Steve Beel and John O’Shea (Bay of Plenty); and Gerard Slattery and Paul Casey Jr (Hinuera, Waikato).
The fours team of Vern Marshall (skip), Mal Trowell (three), Bob McIlroy (two) and Ricky Miller (lead) will be up against long-time Dunedin skip Terry Scott and a familiar face in Waikato fours skip Dwayne Cameron, who learned to play the game at the Kahutia Bowling Club.
The fours competition will be just as competitive as the singles and pairs, but the GEC team played well against Hawke’s Bay, and Marshall has plenty of experience at this level.
The team manager will be Ben Brown.
The women’s team will play at the Blockhouse Bay Bowling Club tomorrow and the Carlton Cornwall club on Saturday.
Their five opponents in section play will be Kapiti Coast, Bay of Plenty, North Harbour, Southland and host centre Auckland.
Kahutia’s Dayvinia Mills, the national club champion finals women’s singles winner from last season, will play the singles. She faces a tough line-up. They include Bay Of Plenty’s Mary Campbell, also a national titleholder; North Harbour’s Selina Goddard, a Blackjack who was runner-up in the national singles last January; and Karen Hema, Auckland’s top singles player.
It’s just as tough in the pairs for Te Karaka’s Sarah Brown and Poverty Bay’s Val McGreevy, who are up against Blackjack squad members Wendy Jensen (North Harbour) and Sarah Scott (Southland); Kapiti Coast’s nationally ranked Audrey Stevenson, a holder of 50 centre titles; and top Bay of Plenty bowlers Sue Hodges and Mina Paul.
Gisborne Bowling Club’s Queenie Takurua skips the fours and is no stranger to this level of competition.
Her clubmate Carol Hawes will play three with Te Karaka’s Del Tamanui and Kahutia’s Anita Vaotuua completing the team.
Former Poverty Bay and Gisborne Bowling Club player Ronnie Crone is skipping the Kapiti Coast fours, while former Te Karaka bowler Jasmine Merrick will be playing for the Bay of Plenty fours team.
The North Harbour fours skip, Lisa Parlane, who won the national pairs with Val Smith last January, is also in the Blackjacks squad.
The GEC women’s team manager will be Kahutia’s Emily Hongara, with Poverty Bay’s Lex Kennedy as assistant manager.
Centre president Mark Bain congratulated all those selected and passed on the best wishes of Gisborne East Coast bowlers, trusting the teams would set a high standard of sportsmanship and fair play.
