Gwen Lawson's bowls column: Centre pairs comp on this weekend

The Northland Bowls Centre's open pairs contest is being held this weekend

The Centre Open Champion Singles finally got off the ground after having been cancelled earlier in the season when Covid intervened.

Six players qualified in the Women's section, with Leanne Stewart (Hikurangi) and Karina Cooper (Kamo) having byes into the second round. Ann Muir (Kensington) beat Patricia Murray (Kensington) 21-15; Ann Halls (Onerahi) beat Wendy Sarjeant (Mangawhai) 21-15.
Round 2: Cooper beat Stewart 19-18; Halls Beat Muir 21-13.

Final: Cooper got off to a good start and was 10-4 up after nine ends.

Halls then scored 12 shots on the next five ends to lead 16-10. The next eight ends were shared, with Cooper getting as close as 20-18 before Halls got the winning shot to complete the match 21-18. This was a fourth Centre title for Ann Halls.

In the Men's division, 15 players qualified, with Garry Fraser (Kamo) receiving a round one bye.

Round 1 results were: Trevor Reader (Kamo) bt Carl Van Haaften (Kensington) 16-11; Paul Wightman (Mangawhai) bt Paul Price (Kamo) 21-2; Errol Koroi (Maungaturoto) bt Neil King (Arapohue) 17-9; Steve Smith (Kamo) bt David Hood (Whangārei) 18-14; Ralph Ballinger (Kamo) bt Shane Judson (Mangawhai) 18-11; Ken Walker (Maungakaramea) bt Trevor Moyle (Kamo) 21-15 John Carruthers (One Tree Pt) bt Grant Bush (Kensington) 15-14.

Round 2: Reader bt Fraser 17-12; Wightman bt Koroi 18-11; Smith bt Vallinger 21-20; Carruthers bt Walker 20-12.

Round 3: Reader bt Wightman 20-11; Carruthers bt Smith 21-7.
Final: Reader bt Carruthers 16-15.

The final was a very close affair, with the lead changing on almost each second round.

After 12 ends the score was 10-all, after 14 ends it was 11-all. Carruthers then made a small break and led by two shots going into the last end as time was up on the clock.

Unfortunately for Carruthers, and fortunately for Reader, he scored three shots on the last end to win the match by one shot.

This was a 19th Centre title for Reader.

Well done to all players for hard-fought matches. Thanks to Kensington, Onerahi and Kamo Clubs for their hospitality and to operations personnel and umpires on duty.

This weekend we will see the post-section play of the Centre Open Pairs played at Kamo greens. This event was also postponed earlier in the season and 15 men's teams and four women's teams have qualified.

The draw is as follows:

Men: R.Ballinger & J.Dunn (1st-round byes - Report at 9.30am) J.Ridling, M.Haslam, K.Walker, P.Wightman, J.Carruthers, Coe Van Haaften, P. Nicholson, S.Nelson, Carl Van Haaften, T.Reader, D.Hood, K.Judson (all report at 8.15am).

Women: (All report at 9.30am) - D.Strawbridge, P.Murray, M.Attwood, A.Muir.

The Bowls NZ Champion of Champion events commence today. Good luck to Dean McMurchy & Leanne Stewart representing Northland in this event being played in Hastings.