McNabb shows up the boys with one bowl
Mary McNabb had never won a title in the two years she has been playing lawn bowls.
That is until she played a tournament where instead of bowling from one end of the green to the other, as is done in a normal game, players bowl from one corner to the other.
This alternative format suited McNabb’s game perfectly and she walked off with the prestigious Corner to Corner crown and $1000 in prize money after the final at the Pt Chevalier Bowling Club.
It was quite a feat for the Papatoetoe Hunters Corner Bowling Club member who was also the only woman in the final. Some 3000 people from 100 clubs around the New Zealand took part in an estimate 10,000 games to get to the final. There was no national title, as such at stake, but the $3000 prize money offered is one of the largest put up by Bowls New Zealand.
McNabb was humble in victory.
‘‘It was more luck than my skill. Others were not playing to their best on the day,’’ she says.
‘‘I had an interest in bowls from my mother and got started because I wanted to have some exercise and to meet other people and enjoy the game. I have not won any other titles before.’’
McNabb says she enjoyed the tournament and the success.
‘‘It is a fun variation to standard bowls up and down a rink. It’s challenging because the length.’’
The corner is marked with several concentric semi circles to help bowls gauge distance. In the final round McNabb first bowl pulled up within 50cm of the corner.
The other four bowlers couldn’t better her bowl so she didn’t need to bowl her second.