Bowlers aim for intercentre title

Laird Park bowler Pauline Pirere is one of several of the Wanganui rep women on a roll ahead of the National Intercentre Championships in Wellington.

Whanganui representative lawn bowlers have accrued countless titles over many years, but the National Intercentre trophies have eluded both the men and women's teams.

However, Bowls Wanganui has sent two strong sides to this year's tournament in Wellington starting today and running through until Sunday.

The men's side features Whanganui's most capped player in Ray Park, while rising women's star Reen Stratford is in rare form. Both Park and Stratford are skips of the respective fours.

Park has amassed over 60 centre titles and a host of national honours over many seasons, while Stratford has just received her first gold star, reward for achieving five centre titles.
Her latest title was the Whanganui Champion of Champion singles titles, while earlier this year Stratford was runner-up in the Heartland Bank National Open Women's Singles.

Men's coach and co-selector Lindsay Wheeler said his side was the best available players in the centre.

"There were some in eligible including Peter Belliss because he was a selector and Keith Slight who works for Bowls New Zealand," Wheeler said.

"Then there was the likes of Sean Johnson who hasn't played much bowls lately and Alan Dickson and Clint Park who were simply unavailable. I believe we have the strongest side available. The singles is one of the most important disciplines and if we can win most of those it sets the rest of the team up.

"Bernard Anderson (singles) and Ian Porteous (pairs skip) are playing in their third National Intercentre tournament and each time their games have really lifted to match the standard of play at this level.

"We will need to be on our game though. We have drawn a strong section with Canterbury, Dunedin, Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty and West Coast and we will need to finish first or second in our section to make post section play," Wheeler said.

In the five year history of the Intercentre championship the Whanganui men were fifth last year and third the previous season.

Meanwhile, the women are also in a strong section up against Counties-Manukau, Nelson, Central Otago, Dunedin and Taranaki.

Selector/coach Chris Waterson has belief in his team and predicts they will make post section play and have a great shot at gold if each win 50 percent of their games in their section.

The teams
Men:
Singles: Bernard Anderson (Wanganui)
Pairs: Ian Porteous (s) (Aramoho), Gavin Scrivener (Aramoho)
Fours: Ray Park (s) (Wanganui), Phil Corney (Aramoho), Lindsay Bourne (Aramoho), Tony McCrae (Durie Hill)
Coach/Selector: Lindsay Wheeler
Manager: Mike Morgan

Women:
Singles: Dianne Patterson (Wanganui)
Pairs: Anne Loveridge (s) (Castlecliff), Marlene Foster (Wanganui East)
Fours: Reen Stratford (s) (Aramoho), Marilyn Constatine (Wanganui East), Pauline Pirere (Laird Park), Maria Klitscher (Wanganui East)
Coach/Selector: Chris Waterson
Manager: Aka Alder