Women’s pairs set to face off
THE field is a little more local.
The greens were a little harder to get in shape.
And the tournament is being held a little — or a lot — later in the year than it normally is.
But like many other things this year, the North East Valley Bowling Club is happy it is able to host the Dunedin Casino women’s pairs at all.
Originally scheduled for the end of March, the $6000 event was postponed as Covid19 hit.
The club wanted to ensure it held the event this year, though, and it will take place tomorrow and Sunday.
‘‘Once it got to the end of March we basically ran out of time,’’ Jim Scott, of the North East Valley club, said.
‘‘Then with the Covid and our greens being unavailable and that sort of stuff.
‘‘We wanted to hold it this year, 2020, we hadn’t actually run one in that year.
‘‘I don’t know what it’s going to do for us next year, whether we run one in March next year too.’’
Uncertainty around the country had limited entries from outside the region.
However, there were still bowlers travelling from around the South Island, coming from as far away as Nelson.
A quality field of locals had entered, Scott said.
This year they would be allowed to choose their partners, rather than being matched up by the organisers as they had been in the past.
Last year’s champion duo of Janet Swallow — who also won the year before — and Cathy King were back to defend their title.
Former Dunedin bowler Gaynor Reid, who won 24 centre titles — at the time a record — before shifting to Nelson, would play.
The bowler to take that record from her with 28 titles, Carolyn Crawford, would also make a rare appearance at the tournament.
Normally it did not fit with her work schedule, being held midweek, but the weekend tournament allowed her to enter.
Queenstown’s Margaret O’Connor and Jane Anderson would form another strong duo.
Scott said the club had had challenges getting the greens ready, but he was happy with where they were at.
Covid19 restrictions had meant they were unable to renovate them until August.
‘‘It’s taken a bit of time to get it into order.
‘‘Once again that’s because we weren’t able to do the renovations back in April.
‘‘After our season we’ve got to renovate the green and of course we weren’t able to get on them because of Covid.
‘‘So it’s had an impact on the work we’ve been able to do on the greens, but I think they’ll find the greens are up to a reasonable standard.’’
The tournament has four sections of six teams, which will be played on Saturday.
The top two from each section will advance to Sunday’s finals, and the grand final is expected to be at about 1.30pm.