Inaugural tourney a winner

Shannon McIlroy and the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation had thousands of reasons to smile at the end of the inaugural Kevin Gallop Memorial fours bowls event in Blenheim yesterday.

The Stoke club skip from Nelson led his team of Pete Hodson, Terry Wiechern and Barry Chinnery to an emphatic victory in the round-robin tournament which netted the four first prize of $2000.

McIlroy's team also won the $1000 raffle first prize to cap off a highly successful weekend for them.

The main purpose of the event was to raise funds for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation's treatment facility in Christchurch which many Marlburians use.

Their coffers were boosted by more than $6000 raised from the tournament, and in particular Saturday night's hugely successful fundraising auction at the Royal Hotel, where a wide array of items went under the hammer.

The tournament was named after Kevin Gallop, one of Marlborough's top bowlers who died of leukaemia in 1997 at the age of 46.

His younger brother, Lloyd Gallop, was the main organiser of the event and his mother, Cath Gallop, made an emotional speech before presenting McIlroy with the flash new trophy.

Lloyd Gallop was thrilled with the response to the tournament and the money raised and plans to make it an annual event.

"Pretty much in the ballpark as far as money raised goes. Everyone has had a ball.

"Everyone played in the spirit of what it was supposed to be about and it was great to have three New Zealand reps here.

"The generosity of those who bought things at the auction was great. It exceeded expectations.

"We were targeting about $5000, but it's looking more like $6500."

The two-day tournament based at the Blenheim Bowling Club with matches also played at the Blenheim Workingmen's Club greens, attracted 34 teams, each team playing six matches.

Included among the players was double world champion Gary Lawson.

His team, skipped by fellow NZ fours team-mate Shayne Sincock from the Havelock club, included Dave Good and Gary Rurane and they finished runners-up behind McIlroy.

Lawson said he thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and was pleased to be able to help such a good cause.

Blenheim's Kelvin Scott wouldn't normally settle for third place in any event but in picking up third prize and $800, he overcame the handicap of several players pulling out of his team during the week and having to field late replacements. Kevin Wratt, Warren Minogue and Gary Ching all contributed to a fine team effort.

Fourth place went to Lloyd Gallop's team skipped by his son Steven and including his brother in-law Geoff Alexander and the well-performed Percy Riddell.

Other teams among the prize money were Ken Hart's team of Calvin Hart, Greg Smith and Andrew Boyd. Sixth was the Dean Gregg-skipped team of Bill Shadbolt, Brian Maher and Greg Foster while Keith Maslin's team of Bob Dowling, Alan Shepherd and Mike Mehlhopt were seventh.

McIlroy was pleased with his win, especially the fact that they won all of their six matches in convincing fashion.

He has a close affinity to the Gallop family, being a former New Zealand under-18 and under-25 team-mate of Matt Gallop, Kevin's nephew, now playing for the Cabramatta Club in Sydney.

"I defaulted the Stoke club triples final to play this. More important to support this event."

After Friday's flash storm left the Blenheim greens under water for a short time, they quickly recovered and conditions throughout the weekend were near-perfect, producing a generally very high standard of play among the top teams.

- The Marlborough Express