Bowls: Hikurangi on roll with third success

Gwen Lawson recaps bowling news.

The Centre Open Fours were completed at the Mangawhai greens recently and the fast condition of the greens provided difficulty for many teams.

In the women's section, the Hikurangi Club team skipped by Anne Bateman completed their third centre success of the season when they defeated Kensington - skipped by Ann Muir - 14-11 in the final.

In the semifinals, Bateman had to play her Hikurangi counterpart Diane Lawrence and won a tight match 14-13. Muir also had to play her Kensington counterpart Maree Attwood and won the match 15-11.

In the final, it was very evenly placed and, after 12 of the 15 ends, the teams were even at 9-all. A four scored on the 13th end gave the Hikurangi combination the break and, although Muir got two back on the 14th end, a one on the last gave the Hikurangi combination the win.

Hikurangi's successful team was made up of Bateman, Betty Mitchell, Noelene James, and Maureen Rahui. Runners-up were Muir, Karen Horscroft, Jude Ganley and Chris Budge.

In the men's section there were five qualifiers, with round one seeing John Dunn (Onerahi) defeat Gordon Bond (Kensington) 11-8. In round two, Dunn defeated Ken Fitness (Hikurangi) 11-10 and Kevin Robinson (Maungaturoto) defeated Charlie Shepherd (Mangawhai) 14-13.

The final saw Maungaturoto's Robinson start the match with a four, drop a five to Dunn on the second end before Robinson scored eight on the next three ends to make it 12-5.

Then, the Onerahi combination started on the great comeback and scored 11 shots on the next five ends to go out to a 16-12 lead. Only able to score three shots on the next five ends was not enough for the Maungaturoto team and Onerahi completed the win 19-15.

The Onerahi team was Dunn, Ian Halls, Neil Connell, and Roger Kerr-Davis while the runners-up were Robinson, Carlson Barnett, Wayne Wrack, and Keith Youngman.

Auckland action

The New Zealand Trust Auckland Open event has been played over the past 10 days and results to date show that Ann Muir, Chris Budge and Ken Fitness - who defeated another local Wayne Wrack - all reached the last 16 of the singles event. Sam Nelson and Eric Pattillo reached the last 16 in the pairs.

Several local combinations were also continuing in the triples event which was to be concluded today.

Entries close

Entries have closed for the Inter-Club Sevens competition which starts on December 7 - with 16 men's and eight women's teams entered.

This competition is a New Zealand-wide event, run in two divisions and the winners of each event will represent Northland in the regional competition to be held later in the season.

Entries close today for the Centre Open Triples, which will be held in the Dargaville, Arapohue and Ruawai area on November 29.