Morel proves enduring bowls champ
Christchurch’s 76-year-old national champion Bev Morel is living proof that age is just a number on the bowling green.
Morel won her third national championships title when she and Elmwood Park clubmate Sherrie Cottle triumphed in the pairs final in Dunedin on Sunday.
‘‘We are just over the moon,’’ Morel said while driving home to Christchurch to celebrate her latest success with her family.
‘‘We didn’t expect it at all, we weren’t prepared for it.’’
The Elmwood duo dominated the defending champions, Dale Rayner and Ashleigh Jeffcoat, 19-6, in the final.
Jeffcoat - New Zealand’s youngest titleholder when she won in 2017 at 17 - was not born when Morel won her first national crown 23 years ago.
Morel, who also won a New Zealand Pathways pairs crown in 2004 ‘‘when it still counted as a national title’’, is one of New Zealand bowls’ older national champions.
But, she is clearly not fazed at facing younger competitors, including New Zealand’s twenty-something new breed of Black Jacks.
‘‘It’s a sport that you can do at any age.’’ Morel, a grandmother who grew up with 17 siblings, retired from representative bowls in 2014 after 34 Canterbury centre titles.
‘‘But I kept playing competitively’’.
She missed last year’s national championships in Auckland, but decided to enter this year with the championships in Dunedin, a happy hunting ground’’.
Her first national title came at Christchurch in 1995 when she won the fours in a Linwood club team comprising Marie Watson, Raelene Peters and Denise Page.
Twelve years later, in Dunedin, she skipped an Elmwood Park four including her sister Theresa Woodham, Pam Phair and Lois Grey, to the 2007 crown.
‘‘I quite like Dunedin - it seems to have been kind to us,’’ Morel quipped after her 2018 success.
She praised Cottle, her lead, for playing ‘‘outstanding bowls’’ all week.
‘‘I was thrilled this time for Sherrie because it was her first national title. I played with her when we were runner-up in the fours in 2002 when we played against Millie [Khan],’’ Morel said.
They got a big thrill from topping a field containing some of New Zealand’s leading international bowlers, including former world champions Jo Edwards and Val Smith.
The Elmwood duo toppled five past or present Blackjacks in the sudden-death phase.
Morel said she and Cottle were ‘‘pretty nervous’’ before facing the highly-rated former internationals Sandra Keith and Serena Matthews in the first playoffs round.
‘‘We thought we would be lucky to come through, but we came through that game and, slowly, just one game at a time, we managed to keep coming through.’’
They beat the Keith pair 17-13, followed up with a win over Christine Buchanan’s team 14-10 and then accounted for the mother and daughter combination of Leigh Griffin (the 2015 national singles champion) and Kirsten Edwards (a recent Black Jacks representative) in 19-13 in the quarterfinals.
That set up a semifinal against Burnside’s Blackjacks, Tayla Bruce, 23, and Katelyn Inch, 22.
Youth proved no match for experience with Morel and Cottle winning the allCanterbury encounter 17-13.
Their final victory proved their biggest margin in the post-section phase.
Asked to name the favourite of her three titles, Morel felt they were all special, but said: ‘‘I don’t think I will ever forget the last time we were playing in Dunedin when I skipped the four.
‘‘That will always be special because my brother passed away during that tournament and I had my sister in the team too.’’
There might be a glimmer of hope for Morel’s younger rivals next year - she’s not sure if she will be back to defend the title in 2019.
‘‘We don’t know, we’ve got to have a think about it. [Bowls NZ] haven’t decided where it’s going to be next year. We’ll decide then.’’