Small women's qualifying entry hard to fathom

OPINION: Qualifying rounds for Manawatu open fours (men's and women's), as well as women's singles, were held at the weekend.

There were only eight women's entries in the fours and I am at a loss to understand why.

Five of those were from Northern, and while it was held at Shannon, there were no Shannon entries. Taking nothing away from that club, but I fail to see the logic in going to the southernmost club in the centre.

The usual suspects came through with Fran Frith (Terrace End), Viv Lozell (Northern), Mona Melton (Bulls) and Anne Corlett (Northern) being the qualifiers.

A few upsets occurred in the men's fours with the Northern side containing Phil Skoglund, senior and junior, failing to qualify, along with Tui Niwa's composite side and Don Sones (PN).

Eleven teams qualified, being Chris Barrett (Johnston Park), Barry Wynks (Takaro), Eric Cairncross (PN), Pat Horgan (PN), Martin Hammond (Northern), Ray Lovie (Northern), Brian Looker (Terrace End), Tom Palmer (Northern), Wayne Mouldey (PN), Craig Gush (Northern) and Terry Puklowski (Johnston Park).

Women's singles qualifiers were Feona Sayles, Julieanne Mills, Lyn Jensen, Sharon Groves, Mere Fryer, Fran Frith, Kay Hammond, Ra Walker and Sue Way.

Once again, even though entries were light, the qualifiers are a mixture of the centre's proven best and most promising.

It was a pleasure to be able to access the draws and results for these events from the centre's website at www.bowlsmanawatu.co.nz.

Kapiti Coast (www.kcbc.co.nz) and Wanganui (www.bowlswanganui.org.nz) also have excellent sites and it makes it much easier to find tournaments to play and track draws.On a more sombre note, bowls lost one of its great personalities last week with the passing of Colin Griggs.

In recent times most bowlers would have known Colin as a most able administrator, but he had an outstanding playing career first.

A member of the Palmerston North club for 45 years, he won nine senior club titles, a gold star of centre titles and a Taranaki Open in 1972 as a member of Kevin Wing's side.

He won local centre titles with both Phil Skoglund and Kevin Wing, two of our best ever, which in itself is testament to his ability.

He was, at varying stages, patron, president and captain for his club and served on the centre.

In the same week we also lost Palmerston North life member Eric Procter who, among his service, served 11 years as treasurer.

Both Colin and Eric loved the Taranaki Open, so it would be fitting if one of our sides could honour them by winning the event which is being played this week.

Taranaki also lost Pearl Dymond last week and she had strong links to Manawatu, being a sister to both Vic Sellars and Joyce Osborne.

What a freakishly talented family – all three won New Zealand singles titles.

- © Fairfax NZ News