Minnows in the money at fours tournament

BY TONY JENSEN

OPINION: It may have been the major bowls clubs that finally took the titles, but several of our minnows figured prominently along the way in champion-of-champions fours at the weekend.

The senior men's title was won by the Philip Skoglund-skipped team from Northern, which included his father, Phil, promising young bowler Ben Hamilton and Derek McKee, who has made a return to the competitive ranks this season.

They beat the Foxton and Beach team of Gary Snellgrove, David Croad, Don Mochan and Bob Bloomfield, 21-7.

In the women's event, it was the old guard again, with Fran Frith taking her second title in three days following the women's open pairs.

In her Terrace End team were Georgie Kahui-Rogers, Sharon Groves and Bev Budd who, having brought up the milestone of 30 centre titles in the triples, wasted no time in eyeing 40 as the next target.

Again it was a country club that lost the final, with Mona Melton's team losing, 27-8, after being in great form in the earlier rounds.

Melton had Shirley Keeble, Margaret Keech and Barbara Way as her four's front end.

Northern also took the intermediate men's title, with John Hayes skipping Harold Bailey, Lindsay Elston and Noel Hannah to an 18-9 final win over Johnston Park's Edgar Jones, Tony Beard, Alan Spence and Peter Wasley.

The tiny Kimbolton club provided one of the talking points of the men's events by making the semifinals in both senior and intermediate.

Champion of champions continue this coming weekend with the glamour singles event, men at Palmerston North and women at Northern.

Our Manawatu men's masters (over 60) representative team finished fourth, but were unlucky not to finish second in their tournament at Wanganui East Bowling Club last week.

Teams represented were Hutt Valley, Kapiti Coast, Wairarapa, Wanganui, Wellington and Manawatu.

Hosts Wanganui were the winners with 26 points with three teams on 22 points only being separated by a differential countback.

Hutt Valley finished second with Wellington third.

A full round robin was played, with Manawatu's best combination being the triples with 3.5 wins.

Success was evenly spread, with singles player Lindsay Toms winning two, the four 2.5 and the pair taking three games.

For the record Manawatu's team was: singles, Toms; pairs Terry Puklowski (s) and Brian Henn; triples Barry Evans (s), Ronn Henn and Harold Bailey; fours Ali Farrell (s), Don Cooley, Barry Gush and John Proctor.

Phil Skoglund tells me he has only four vacancies left in Northern's major Easter triples tournament and entries close next Monday.

Already, visiting teams from Taranaki, Wanganui, Kapiti, Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa have entered.

Johnston Park's very popular Fives tournament, which had to be cancelled earlier in the year, will now be held on Good Friday, April 2.

So it could be handy for players wanting to get their eye in before the Northern tournament.

Our season is drawing to its close and now is the time clubs need to seriously start planning for next season.

I would love to see some real innovation.

We have seen with the popularity of twilight tournaments how catering to the needs of people with limited recreational time pays dividend for clubs in putting players on to greens and into their clubhouses.

As an example, the 120 players my club has involved in twilight far exceeds the number of full members.

I believe we also need to look at half-day and twilight tournaments for weekend bowlers. In the best of daylight saving, a tournament starting at 4pm and going until 8pm will appeal to some players.

Look at the number of retail outlets that close at 3pm on a Sunday and think of all those workers as another market.

Also, what a nice way to finish a weekend. We need to innovate or we will vegetate.

Email news to tony.jensen@aon.co.nz or give me a call.

- © Fairfax NZ News