Hi Everyone.  

The Junior 1-5 Regional Interclub Final was played on Saturday at the Hikurangi Bowling club north of Whangarei. 5 teams were competing for the prestigious Mercedes Cup. Teams from Kerikeri, Mangawhai, Mairangi Bay, Balmoral and Papakura were to compete over 5 rounds with each team having a bye.

The weather did not play its part and it was a very difficult day. It rained most of the day and after the first round, the rain became very heavy flooding the green. With this being an artificial Astroturf green based on sand once the rain came it  became very heavy and grippy.

Unfortunately for many bowlers particularly the ladies (not being sexist ) these conditions became extremely difficult as you needed to play run shots and drives just to get close to the jack.

Balmoral coped with the conditions the best to win convincingly losing only one game out of 9 played and that was in the triples to our Mairangi Bay team.  
  
Our Triples team of Alan Daniels, Mike Wilkinson and Phil Chisholm had a good day winning 3 games out of 3.
Theresa Rogers in the singles and the pairs team of David Payne and Colleen Rice struggled with the conditions losing all their matches.

The final round was not played due to the weather and the fact that Balmoral could not be beaten.   Balmoral finished 1st, Mangawhai 2nd, Kerikeri 3rd, Mairangi Bay 4th and Papakura 5th.   A disappointing result on a very difficult bowling day.  

Many thanks to the Team of Tony Popplewell, Leon Wech, Ian Hardy.   Kevin Cameron during the qualifying and finals and also to the players that filled in.   Special thanks to Leon Wech who travelled up as our manager and to Gayle Wilkinson as our reserve.  

And a big thank you to our support team of Tony and Jane James for their great encouragement during a frustrating day with the weather. They also supplied an amazing Banana cake which went down very well with the team.  

Alan Daniels  
Junior Convenor