Bowls: Young bowlers a hit at nationals

Amy Brenton. Photo / Martin Sykes

The emergence of younger bowlers, especially in the women's game, was underscored again at the national championship in Auckland yesterday as Clare McCaul and Amy Brenton were among the leading combinations, making the women's pairs' last 16.

McCaul, winner of the world under-25 singles title last year, atoned for her knockback from another youngster Mandy Boyd in the singles semifinal on Sunday by skipping 20-year old Brenton to an impressive win over accomplished Aucklanders Maria Broadbent and Jo Babich, the latter a double national champion in 2008.

Though at home on Carlton-Cornwall green, Broadbent and Babich failed to pick weight and line as quickly as McCaul and Brenton, after a good win over Taranaki's Gale Fache and Kathleen Brown.

The win was also consolation for Brenton for a singles heartbreak last year when she lost the national final to fellow Nelsonian, world champion Jo Edwards, by a shattering 21-3.

But McCaul said those defeats probably gave them a little more steel, though before overcoming Broadbent and Babich they narrowly survived a cliff-hanger over North Harbour's Madeleine Holland and Cindy Henley.

In today's quarter-finals, McCaul and Brenton will meet former Black Jack Wendy Jensen and her Onehunga clubmate Olivia Bloomfield.

Sandra Keith, who meets Boyd in tomorrow's singles final, continued her good form with partner Serena Matthews beating Waikato's Sue Burnand and Leanne Curry.

Other top combinations playing off to reach tomorrow's final include Boyd and her sister Angela, Aucklanders Reen Stratford and Hetty Bolscher, Shirley and Genevieve Baildon, Northland's Ann Muir and Sue Wightman and North Harbour's Yvonne Preston and Raelene Parker.