Far North team bowls over Northland competitors

Marge Milich, Dennis Panther and Chad Barron took out first place to receive the Mick Katavich Trophy. Photo / Supplied

Last Thursday night (July 22) the indoor bowling fraternity descended on the Waiharara Hall for a nine bowl triples tournament, with 10 teams competing for the Mick Katavich Trophy.

When the smoke cleared, Marge Milich, Dennis Panther and Chad Barron came home in first place, with three wins and a loss.

Stephen Yuretich, Mate Radich and Ivan Yuretich's came in second, with two wins and two draws.

While this equated to three wins, the trio just missed out on top spot on a countback by one end.

And wouldn't you know it, Marge's only loss was to the team skipped by her husband Joe!

Stephen Yuretich was running pretty hot, returning recently from a large tournament in Whangarei where he was second out of the Northland reps, a pretty impressive feat.

One other thing worth mentioning from Thursday night was Eddie 'Da Boss' McCarthy and his team conceded eight points on one end.

When you consider Eddie is one of the top bowlers in Northland and the maximum number of bowls is nine, it is pretty darn hard to go down eight.

When the Dally community put on a tournament you can always guarantee good tucker and a very enjoyable evening.

So it was again this year, leaving many regretting that second or third plateful by the end of the night.

The Le Roy Pairs

On Sunday, July 25, the Far North sent six 'pairs' of representative teams to Whangarei for the Le Roy Pairs - a competition between clubs from Whangarei, Bay of Islands, Far North and Rodney/Northern Wairoa.

Whangarei is usually the team to beat due to a relatively large pool of players to choose from and hence their high-level performance.

Proving their dominance, Whangarei once again came home in top spot this year, with BOI second and the Far North third, with Rodney/Northern Wairoa bringing up the rear.

At lunchtime, the Far North seemed assured of second place, but in the afternoon the Bay made a strong resurgence and just pipped them by one point.

Two Far North teams finished in the top five individual placings, however, with Lynne Pooley and Jacob Whaiapu taking out third spot and Steve Joyce and Helen Fisher in fifth spot.