Good weekend for bowlers

Anniversary weekend saw some good results for Northland bowlers.
At Browns Bay in Auckland, Graeme Wintle and Colin Wintle combined with a local Ray Menzies to take out the major prize against a very tough field.
At Papakura in the 1-5 Year Junior Pairs, Bowls Whangarei pair of Paul Yovich and Aaron Van Haaften had eight straight wins before coming up against the defending champions from North Harbour in the semi finals. They could not quite pull it off and the North Harbour pair went on to win the event for a second year. Father and son combination, Kevin and Hayden Smith also qualified in the top 16 but were eliminated at an early stage.
Locally, the Bowls Whangarei Doel Pairs was won by club president Trevor Reader and Sam Prasad, who beatOnerahi's Terry Te Rangi and Graeme O'Neill by picking up three shots on the last end when they were two behind. The consolation event also went to the host club with Tom Chapman and Laurie Reader coming out on top on the day. Congratulations to all those successful bowlers.
Teams named
Northland selectors have announced their teams for the final weekend of representative play in Auckland at the end of this month. Teams are:
Women's Open
Singles: Anne Bateman. Pairs: Sue Wightman and Ann Muir. Triples: Janice McLean, Caroline Downs, Judy Carson. Fours: Madeline Yovich, Peg Wardell, Diane Stewart, Pat Warth. Reserves: Diane Flintoff, Viv Biddles.
Men's Open Singles: John Dunn. Pairs: Marty Webb and Trevor Reader. Triples: Daniel Hood, Alan Wintle, Steve Smith. Fours: Ian Bowick, Russell Hocking, Gordon Bond, Warwick Edgar.
Women's Academy Singles: Maree Attwood. Pairs: Nancy Jujnovich, Phyllis Holmes. Triples: Pam Brewster, Glenda Norris-Palmer, June Wilson. Fours: Elly Van Haaften, Didge Cullen, Lyn Irving, Manu Timoti.
Men's Academy Singles: Alistair Trimmer. Pairs: Steve Mitchell, Joe Thorburn. Triples: Charlie Shepherd, Michael Jujnovich, Peter Savident. Fours: Hayden Smith, Gerry Mulligan, Colin Pierce, Stewart MacDonald. Reserves: Leeanne Stewart, Maureen Church.
Club play
This weekend most of the men's clubs are completing club championships started back in January. One which has been completed, is the Maungatapere singles, which was won by Jim Taylor who unfortunately will not be able to compete in the Champion of Champion Singles as he will be overseas.
Sorry, John
My apologies to John Dunn for the comment last week that the Centre Singles was his 26th Centre title.
In fact it was his 27th _ I had forgotten that he won the Centre Fours earlier this season. My records have now been brought up to date and the information should be accurate from now on. The singles win puts him one ahead of Gordon Bond who has 26 titles to his credit.
An email from Gisborne-East Coast Centre this morning, advised that former New Zealand player David File just won his 40th Centre title there, so Northlanders still have some way to go to head him off.