Bowls: Clubmates spur team to title

Two club members were uppermost in the minds of the Kensington women's four skipped by Judy Carson as they capped a dramatic day by winning the national title at the Henderson club.

Just after her line-up of Anne Muir, Carol Downes and Nancy Jjunovich had won the final, against Diane Harris and her Papakura four, Carson said they had all been specially motivated by an old friend and team-mate, Freda Stokes, who was buried in Whangarei yesterday.

And Carson was also heartened by her husband Alan, a victim of a form of motor neurone disease, who watched yesterday's final from a wheelchair adjacent to the green.

"Anne and I have both played a lot with Freda, and she was a great help to us both," she said. "And Alan has always been a great supporter of mine.

"He [came] down from Whangarei in the morning to be here and he is still a keen bowler."

The 27-15 win in the fours final made it a double for the Kensington club. Last week, Anne Bateman and Janice McLean, both of whom have been coached by Muir, won the pairs and that had been another motivating factor yesterday.

Carson and Muir have been in the forefront of New Zealand women's bowls for more than a decade, but while Carson won a national pathways triples title last year, with Downes also in the team, it was the first time she had won at the nationals. It was the first for 1992 Commonwealth Games representative Muir, after having been a runner-up and finishing third.

Muir described the Kensington success at this year's nationals as "bloody brilliant," and a reflection of what had become an extremely competitive club, which before amalgamation with the Kensington men four years ago, had played under the Whangarei women's banner.

Though the final was won comfortably enough, with Carson and Muir formidable forces at skip and three and often saving or gaining shots either on the draw or running at the head, it was a nervewracking day.

They survived a tense, remarkable semifinal in the morning against the Pukekohe Cosmopolitan four skipped by Mary Bush and with international Wendy Muir at three, winning 19-18 on an umpire's measure after an extra end.

From 8-18 down, with Wendy Jensen playing superbly, Pukekohe pulled back, especially with a four on the 20th end, to even the score at 18-all and on the 21st almost gaining a second shot and the win.

Admitting that the result had been too close for her nerves, Muir, who these days is the national women's team manager, admitted: "We started to play the board."

In their semifinal, the Papakura four of Harris, three Alison Rennie, two Rita Berridge and lead Val Bougen, won 20-18 against the fast finishing composite four skipped by Michelle Preston.

In the final, Harris said the all-round strength and experience of Kensington, especially Carson and Muir, had been too much.

Rennie and Berridge are still only juniors, with Rennie a fourth-year player and Berridge in her fifth year. Both are centre junior and academy representatives and their potential clearly has been long spotted by Harris, who is the Counties centre junior selector.

"I like to think I can pick them."

* Singles champion Sharon Sims, who also made the quarter-finals of the fours, won the tournament's prize as the most consistent women's bowler.