Slow burner of a season starts to swing into action

Iwas asked by several bowlers at the weekend why I hadn’t had a column for a couple of weeks which bemused me more than a little.

I have had a fortnight away in Perth with a family bereavement but that in itself would not have precluded me going to print. The simple reasons are the weather induced slow start to the season and I haven’t had a single snippet of news from clubs to provide comment around.

However we are now in October, our representative season is underway and our first centre event will be held at Labour weekend in less than three weeks.

Both men’s and women’s five year and under representative teams competed in their annual hexagonal events at Wanganui last weekend and the women in particular acquitted themselves well. Other competing centres are Wellington, Kapiti, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay and host Wanganui.

Our women’s side finished runner-up to Hawkes Bay managing 11 wins and a draw to to Hawkes Bay’s 14 wins. Teams competed in all disciplines being singles, pairs, triples and fours.

Success was shared across the disciplines with the fours, single and pair all having three wins and the triple two.

While Wellington were always unassailable the Manawatu¯ men would have been disappointed to drop from contending for second going into the last round to fifth after a negative clean sweep. No discipline got close the scores being singles 14-25, pairs 12-22, triples 9-28 and the fours completed the rout with an 8-24 loss.

This is the only representative fixture for five year and under bowlers and it is a category Bowls New Zealand no longer recognises. Eight year and under is now the recognised junior division.

Nevertheless, I consider the event serves a useful purpose in allowing us to compare our newer entrants to the game against their peers and providing a feeder to the eight year and under team.

■ Bowls Manawatu¯ has gone live with its new website and I rate it an outstanding tool.

It contains a myriad of information, will carry cancellation information and live scoring from events will be available. One feature I would encourage the board to add is the historical records of centre title holders. Several years ago I undertook a task of rebuilding the men’s records which were lost and I have maintained them since. However, for perpetuity they need to be recorded in such a permanent manner as the website.

At the time the women’s records were all intact but my understanding is these have now joined the lost category.

■ The first centre event for the season is the mixed 2-4-2 pairs and entries close this week.

Centre events will go onto a regional final this season rather than the national final as has occurred in the last few seasons. This will reduce the financial burden for bowlers dramatically although the regional winners will still go to a national final.

■ Word is that the Foxton and Beach club is proceeding with an artificial green which will be a boost to both club and centre.

With its micro-climate, it will be in a good position to use the facility all year round.

My own Johnston Park club is undertaking an investigation into providing an all weather green so the centre could end up with a choice of all weather greens.

It would alleviate the unfortunate occurrence where champion of champion events for eight year and under bowlers were not played from last season.

■ I called into Bowls Palmerston North recently and was very impressed with the physical alterations that have taken place under the stewardship of Pat Horgan.

New ranch sliders will provide much needed fresh air and indooroutdoor flow and the locker area has been rebuilt. Good bowling and let’s hope for a good spell of weather. It is not much exaggeration to say it hasn’t stopped raining since last Labour Weekend.