By GRAHAM SKELLERN
Bay of Plenty and North Harbour's young guns spurred their men's provincial teams to solid starts in the northern regional bowls league yesterday.
The two centres' talented Academy players (with bowling experience of 12 years and less) dropped only one match in eight during the first of four rounds
to be played over the next two months.
The North Harbour men made their best start in the competition with 12 wins and a draw on their home greens at Browns Bay to head Thames Valley, with eight wins and a draw and Counties Manukau, with three wins.
Harbour's Academy players lost one of the fours matches, while their strong singles specialists had convincing wins - David Eades 31-13 over Thames Valley and Bart Robertson 21-23 over Counties.
Ivan Kostanich made a return to representative play at the age of 78 by beating Thames Valley's Rob Muir 31-17 to notch up another singles victory for Harbour.
Kostanich also teamed with his trusty lead, Pat Robertson, to beat Counties' Steve Dumper and Robin Johnson 33-17 in the open pairs.
Bay of Plenty, seeking a hat-trick of wins in the regional league, gained a vital edge over last year's runners-up, Auckland, at the Moerewa club. The Bay finished the first round with 11 wins and a draw, Auckland had eight wins and a draw, and the home side, Far North, four wins.
Like North Harbour, the Bay's Acacdemy players dropped only a fours match.
The Bay's Jamie Dalton recovered from a 10-24 deficit to beat Auckland's Chris Salesa 31-28 in the Academy singles. The Bay's open singles players also had strong wins, Sid Giddy beating Auckland's Pat Campbell 31-15 and Lance Tasker overcoming Far North's David Hood 31-23.
Auckland were seemingly set back by the late withdrawal of the in-form Tony Garelja through injury, but the centre chairman, Kevin Hickland, who was travelling with the team, boldly stepped up for his representative debut and contributed to two victories, in the open triples and fours.
The two leading men's and women's teams after the fourth round qualify for the reinstated national intercentre final. North Harbour, with 12 wins, and Auckland, 10 wins and a draw, lead the women's section after the first round.
