Bowls finalists found
The first Southland championship of the season got under way over the weekend, as the Men’s and Women’s Open and Development teams took to the greens to contest the Southland Triples at the Balfour, Riversdale, Gore and Limehills greens in a bid to qualify for Sunday’s post section rounds.
The Riversdale club was the host for Sunday’s Carnaby Cars Southland Triples post section and the day got under way with warm calm conditions, but the wind wouldn’t stay away for long.
In the Open Men’s event, defending champion Craig Merrilees from Waikiwi and his new look team of Bruce Ross and Brent Thomson fought their way through to the final and will line up against the Northend combination of Lyall Spencer, Iain MacCallum and Alan Bailey.
In the semifinals, the Waikiwi team got home by the narrowest of margins against the well performed Makarewa side of Mau Toomata, Paul McIntyre and Lewis Heywood.
After the game was tied up at 12-12 after the 18 regulation ends, the game went to an extra end before Merrilees ran the jack into the ditch with his final bowl to snatch victory.
In the other semi-final, Lyall Spencer was locked in a great battle with Ernie Johnstone and his Tokanui team of Peter O’Brien and Russell Cooke.
Trailing by just one shot with six ends remaining, the Northend side piled on the pressure to score on three consecutive ends and ease away to a 22-18 win and secure their spot in the final.
Earlier in the day, Ernie Johnstone had the crowd on their feet as he played a magnificent final bowl on an extra end to eliminate the Gore team skipped by Sheldon Bagrie-Howley in the quarterfinals.
The other post section finalists were Stuart Dickson, Dave Mitchell, Jason Heffer and Noel Ryan.
In the Open Women’s event, it was an all Eastern Southland affair with all four qualifiers coming from the Eastern sub centre.
After finishing runner up in last year’s final, Shona Klemick and her Gore RSA team of Val Lithgow and Maureen Broome will be looking to go one better this year as they won through to the final with a dominant display in the semifinal, leading all the way to record a 21-4 win against the Te Anau combination of Shona Elder, Bev Harper and Karen Ferguson.
Likewise on the other side of the draw, Averil Fowler and her Balfour team of Sue Kincaid and Sue Roy were in great form as they accounted for the Gore RSA team of Maree Barclay, Gay Abernathy and June Ryan 18-8 to book their spot in the final against Shona Klemick.
The Development Women’s event saw three teams qualify for the post section rounds.
The composite team of Evelyn Ussher, Janice Boyle and Rora Thomson, received the bye and go straight through to the final where they will come up against another composite team of Kerry Williams, Karen Witham and Paula O’Conner, after the Williams skipped team beat last year’s finalists, Tanya Haywood, Robyn Hall and Pat O’Connell from Waihopai 17-10.
In the Development Men’s event, there were just two qualifiers and therefore a straight final between the Te Rangi team of Trevor Morton, Mark Flaus and Todd Swain and the Waverley combination of Bernie White, Graham Hodges and Ken McMillan.
The finals venue has yet to be confirmed but will be held on Sunday December 10 along with the finals of the Southland Fours and Southland Mixed Pairs.
The players are back in action this weekend with the Mixed Triples qualifying on Saturday at Otatara and Limehills with finals being played on Sunday at the Waihopai greens.