West End out to defend title
A local bowling team consisting of Barrie Andrews, Tom Taiaroa, Ken Feathers and Sean O’Neill are aiming for back-to-back West End Classic titles.
The team took home the prestigious West End Classic, in 2015, and are looking to do the same this weekend.
The tournament will feature nine other teams from around South Canterbury, while seven other sides from the across the South Island make up the 16-team tournament, with $10,000 in prize money up for grabs.
Since the tournaments inception in 2000, 12 New Zealand Bowls representatives have featured in the three-day tournament, three of them – Gary Lawson, Ali Forsyth and Stu Buttar – have played at the world championships.
Andrews said the West End team played some strong bowls in 2015.
‘‘We player really well,’’ he said. ‘‘We only dropped one match the whole tournament.’’
He said they would be out to do the same this year.
‘‘Everyone likes winning and hopefully we can do it again but it’ll be harder cause we won it last year.’’
If they do manage to get the job done in 2016 then they will be only the second team to have won backto-back West End Classics.
Fellow South Cantabrian’s Danny Rooney, Leo Leonard, Jim Kane and Steve Jones have claimed the title twice, the only team to do so.
Andrews said the chance to repeat what they did would be great.
‘‘We’d love to win again,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a great tournament that has a number of fantastic bowlers taking part.
‘‘It’s a really enjoyable threedays.’’
He said this year there would be four former New Zealand representatives in the field – Sean O’Neill, Shane Sincock, Bruce McNish and Kelvin Scott – while there are also a number of national title winners.
Day one tomorrow see the teams play fours, before day two has them moving into a pairs format before Sunday is finished off with triples and singles, with each team playing a total of 15 matches all up.
‘‘It’s a superb format where the winner may not be found until the end of the final round,’’ Andrews said.
Since the Classic’s beginning in 2000 the event has never been rained out. The only problem with weather was a few years ago when thick fog set in.
Andrews said he had to turn teams away because there was a big demand for spots.
‘‘Thanks to our sponsors we have been able to continue running this event.’’
Feathers said it will be great to get out there and try to defend their title.
‘‘People will want to knock us over. We will have a target on our backs.’’