Small but talented singles field
Taranaki’s leading women bowlers contest the open singles this weekend with a modest field size rich on quality. There are 36 competitors in the event, the same as last year, with Paritutu’s Debbie Wilford the defending champion and pretournament favourite.
Wilford starts the TSB Banksponsored event on the Vogeltown B green and will have little spare time in finding her grove.
In the feature game of Saturday’s section play, Wilford meets Opunake’s decorated Bev Robinson in the second round. With players required to win three games from four to advance to post section on Sunday morning, the loser of the game will face an uphill task to qualify.
Wilford opens against Waitara’s Margaret Bishop and in the afternoon meets Ella Smailes (Hawera Park) and Marlene McArthur (Paritutu).
Robinson has a particularly tough draw. She meets the developing Susan Cottam (West End), Taranaki rep Gloria Shaw (Paritutu) and Nellie Hewson (West End).
The Vogeltown A green also houses a number of likely players, including three past winners, Val McEldowney (New Plymouth) and the Paritutu duo of Cathy Andrews and Marlene Barrowman, who are scheduled to meet in round four.
The section also contains Lilac Pouwhare (Hawera Park), a semifinalist last season, and Kileigh Barber (Paritutu), who meets both McEldowney and Andrews.
Paritutu’s Barbara Batley made the final four 12 months ago, but has a tough task repeating that this time around. She meets Anne Brophy (New Plymouth), Kristin Stampa (Hawera Park), former national fours winner Carolyn Harris (Paritutu) and Rhonda Adams (Fitzroy). Adams won the event two years ago and was runner-up last season. ❚ The men this weekend will contest the centre fours in Hawera, with 32 teams involved. That is up four on last year when Fitzroy’s Grant Pease won his gold star in the South Taranaki Club- sponsored event.
But he is not playing this time, with Bill Johnston taking over the skipping role of the other three members of the team – Des Brophy, Paul Spiers and Garry Kerr.
The Fitzroy team open with a tough match against Nolantown’s Russell Hardy, who has Mark Kuklinski, Ian Lowry and Scott Roberts in his side. Then follows games against Wayne Collins (Hawera) and Ian Andrews (Paritutu). Teams are required to win two games from three to qualify.
The same green at Hawera also contains West End’s Craig Johns and his champion team of two years ago – Dave Wilson, Jordan Linn and Steve Walker – while other prominent skips in the section include open singles winner Dean Elgar (West End), Des Lowry (Rahotu) and Grayson McEldowney (New Plymouth).
In the section at Hawera Park is last year’s runners-up – John Cottam, Peter Goodin, Don Christensen and Darren Goodin (Paritutu) – and teams headed by Neville Elliott (Paritutu), Gerry O’Sullivan (Inglewood), Frank Pollock (Hawera Park) and Mark Anderson (Alton).