New Rakiraki Players Cause Major Upset

New kids on the block Rakiraki Bowling Club turned heads when they caused the biggest upset of the first week of the Islands Electric Western Pennants Fours tournament last weekend at the Nadi Sports and Social Club.

The side defeated Hutson Cup champions Lautoka in two straight games.

With the only experience in the team being skip Josaia Jare, a former representive of the now defunct Vatukoula Bowling Club, the team of Rajiv Lal, Davendra Mudaliar, Aaron Pillay and Hirdesh Kumar surprised the Sugar City side with the teams.

The tournament is being played on selected weekends with each of the western

sides, Rakiraki, Sheraton, Nadi, Lautoka and Ba hosting one weekend of games.

Each weekend teams play two games against another team with each team having to register six players.

Rakiraki is host for the next set of matches but this will be played at the Lautoka Bowling Club as there are no greens in Rakiraki.

Tournament co-coordinator Santokh Singh said Islands Electric’s $1500 sponsorship was timely to lift the standard of bowls to another level.

“We want to develop this sport further with players increasing their skill level and eventually making Fiji a powerhouse in bowling internationally,” Singh said. “With each of the round robin games, we have introduced ‘Power Play’.”

Bowls Fiji’s newly elected president Bobby Prasad said bowls was now taking a new direction in Fiji with the aim to have Fiji represented at most of the World Bowls sanctioned events.

Sponsor Raymond Singh said with this vision, he was happy to provide the incentives starting next weekend.