Gwen Lawson Northland bowls column: Opononi Area School take school bowls honours

Northland bowler Ann Muir (above) and playing partner Sue Wightman combined for the third consecutive year to win the Birkenhead open pairs. Photo / File

Last week ended with the secondary school any combination pairs tournament.

Forty-two students took to the greens at Kamo. Thanks to the bowlers who helped on the day with coaching and running of the event.

Main event results:
1st: Opononi Area School - Hoki-Tawhai Cassidy and Dick Hohepa (3 wins, 68 shots)
2nd: Bay of Islands College - Kaide Maioha and Tane Sigley (3 wins and 43 shots)
3rd: Kaikohe Christian School - Debra Kingi and Maata Kingi (3 wins and 40 shots)

The corner to corner competition was won by Kate Illerbrun with Grace Maioha second and the Spider competition was won by Coby Jones.

This event was followed by the centre 1-5 open singles played at Whangārei, Onerahi and Kensington greens with 33 players taking part.

In the womens division, Janene Thurgood (Kamo) took out the title by defeating Suzanne Dean, of One Tree Point, 21-15 in the final.

There were five qualifiers and both finalists were looking for their first centre title. Both played outstanding bowls on the way to the final and defeated players who, before the event started, were considered 'favourites' to win the event.

In the men's division, there were 10 qualifiers and at the end of a gruelling day, you couldn't have had a better and more outstanding final between two evenly matched contestants.

The final went for 28 ends and was won on the last bowl played to Paul Price (Whangārei)
over Ron Burgin (Kensington) 21-20. The final end in this match was bowl-for-bowl with the lead changing after each delivery.

Burgin drew the shot only to have Price run at the head and take the bowl off. With his last bowl Burgin was on track and hit the jack as he tried to take the jack back to his handy bowls over the head.

Instead the jack locked on a bowl and bounced forward where a short of the head bowl of Price was the shot. This match was well-played by two very even players and a good crowd of spectators had an exciting finish to their day.

This weekend sees the first year bowlers have a go at their own tournament. We have the men playing at Whangārei greens and the women playing at Onerahi greens.

Latest reporting time is 8.30am at both venues. Please remember to bring your markers.

Players entered are:
Whangārei: B.Donaldson, R.Webb, J.Wilde, R.Walters, J.Dawson, E.Conaghan, M.Bennett, S. Judson, M.Smith, D.Warren and J.Walker.
Onerahi: S.Highman, B.Hopper, M.Lawson, A.Connery, S. Ball, S.Child, F.Waterhouse.

Good bowling to you all.

Congratulations to the Northland players who competed in the Birkenhead club open pairs 2020 and came away with prizes.

Sue Wightman and Ann Muir combined for the third year in a row and won the event when they defeated Karen Murphy (Australia) and Colleen Rice (local) in the final of the main event, 17-5.

Also competing were Maree Attwood and Karen Scott of the Kensington club, who came away with a win in the consolation. Well done to all.

Club tournaments:

Tuesday: Onerahi AC triples
Wednesday: Maungatapere MX triples
Thursday: Mangawhai AC Invitation fours, Mt Manaia AC triples
Friday: Kamo AC triples
Saturday (Feb 29): Waipū Invitation AC fours, Leigh AC 2x4x2 1-5 year pairs

Reminders:

National Fours tournament being played this week in Bay of Plenty.
Sunday, March 8: Northland Representative teams compete at Mangawhai and Waipū against Far North, North Harbour and Auckland.

Northland Umpires Association annual fundraising tournament is to be played as
AC triples on Thursday, March 12. Entries to Bruce Scott, phone 435 2512.