Northland bowls wrap

The major events of the Northland bowls season have been completed.

The last major events of the Northland calendar were completed last weekend at the greens at Mangawhai and all events resulted in some close matches with the last bowl deciding games.

The Champion of Champion Pairs were concluded on Saturday and resulted in wins to Dennis Brewster and Ken Fitness (Hikurangi) who defeated Murray Dalbeth and Bob Ashworth (Maungatapere) in a closely fought match 21-19.

Sue Wightman and Tina Harris (Mangawhai) took the honours in the women's competition, defeating Mary Brewster and Chris Budge (Ngunguru) 16-7. The Mangawhai combination got away to a handy lead at the beginning of the match and never relinquished it.

Sunday saw the Champion of Champion Fours event played and this final resulted in an easy 19-4 win to the defending champions Gordon Bond, Dean McMurchy, Mike Howie, and George Lyddiard over the Hikurangi combination of Steve Mitchell, Willie Wyatt, Peter Mitchell and Don Cameron.

Two disastrous ends were the downfall of the Hikurangi combination and they were never in the match.

In the women's section there was a battle royal between eventual winners Diana Catton, Madeline Yovich, Lorraine Robinson and Carol Neeley (Kamo) and the Kensington combination of Maree Attwood, Lauren Mills, Pat Warth and Caroline Downs.

The 12-11 win was secured by Kamo with a three-shot score on the last end when they were two behind on the board. In fact the only time they were in the lead was on the last end.

The Centre programme has now been concluded for the season and will wind up with the Centre AGM being held on Sunday, June 18 at 1.30pm and the Centre dinner, presentation of prizes and awards night being held at the Kamo Club on Saturday, June 10 from 6pm. Tickets at $26 a head are available from the Centre Office.

The Northland Umpires Association held their annual fundraising tournament at the Onerahi greens on Tuesday last. Sixteen teams took part on the Onerahi artificial green. There was only one four winner on the day and 1st prize went to Maurice Taylor, Laurel Jones and Sam Prasad, wiith four wins and 18 ends.

In second place were Maureen Parker, Patricia Murray and Graeme Parker with three wins and 25 ends won. Third went to Peter Mitchell, Dennis Brewster and Steve Mitchell with three wins and 21 ends.

The money raised will be used for umpire training and to assist with travel for umpires to Centre events.

The winter programme for some clubs has already started with others opening in the next couple of weeks.

If you want to play a game of bowls in the off-season then please check out the handbook for the following clubs who have a winter programme: Hikurangi, Ngunguru, Onerahi, One Tree Point, Maungaturoto and Dargaville.

There are plenty of matches available on the calendar.