Golden Oldies turn out in force

SAM BAKER/The Manawatu Standard

WALL-TO-WALL BOWLERS: Crowded house at the Palmerston North Bowling Club for the start of the annual Golden Oldies tournament yesterday. From left are Bowls Manawatu president Jim Burt (Northern), Gordon Dixon (Terrace End) and Palmerston North's Ian Jamieson at right.

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While the recession is hitting most sports heavily, team numbers in the annual Palmerston North Golden Oldies tournament have receded by a mere four teams this week.

The 26th version of Manawatu's biggest bowls event, with 304 bowlers, features 76 teams, down by only four teams from the maximum field of 80 following late withdrawals.

The only hint of belt-tightening among the over 60s came from the absence of the usual waiting list for one of the most popular tournaments around.

Only one bowler in the field has played in all 26 Golden Oldies – Tolaga Bay's former fighter pilot and East Coast hill-country farmer, Ivan Craill, now aged 89.

One of the other long servers, Takaro's Bernie Goodwin, has died. Foxton & Beach's George Dixon, 98, is still playing bowls and was usually the oldest at the Golden Oldies, but for the first time isn't in the tournament.

It is being run for the first time by former Manawatu president Vern Sixtus and includes plenty of notable bowlers from the representative ranks.

Again teams from outside the centre outnumber Manawatu fours, by 43 to 33.

Besides New Zealand great Phil Skoglund (Northern), there's former Dannevirke bowler Tony Small (now Havelock North), Hawke's Bay rep Bruce Stewart (Heretaunga) and Ian Mahoney (West End, New Plymouth), the runner-up in 2008.

There's a hot team from Tauranga South skipped by former national pairs champion Peter Clark.

It includes a two-times national fours winner with Sid Giddy, Maurice Hickey, New Zealand indoor bowler Robert Frelan and Bay of Plenty rep John Simons.

Hickey, a retired bank officer, said he'd been to Palmerston North about 20 times for interclub and inter-regional bowls playoffs.

Despite the surfeit of outside fours, Palmerston North-skipped teams have won the last three titles.

Last year and in 2007, it was Lindsay Toms, Bob Williams, Malcolm Stockwell and Trevor Butcher.

They were also third in 2008.

Three of them are back but Butcher had to pull out after undergoing an operation recently so in came lead Jim Hagan (Bowls Napier), a clubmate of Stockwell's.

They lost their first game yesterday, to a Hutt team that included former Palmerston North bowler Mike Prasad, but won their second.

The 2008 winners, Eric Watson, Brian Henn, Don Cooley and Les Gimblett, are all back.

- © Fairfax NZ News