Last weekend, Browns Bay hosted the Bowls North Harbour Bowls3Five competition.

The weather on Saturday was difficult with rain creating a few stops, wet greens and problems for the organizers.  They pushed through though and managed to complete the scheduled five rounds.

Each round entailed two sets of five ends with a tiebreaker end if the sets were tied.

Mairangi had eight teams entered beaten only by Takapuna who had ten teams, out of a total of 48 teams.

The teams were:
Stingrays: Peter Orgias, Sheryl Wellington and Kerin Roberts.
Sharks: Allan Langley, Gaye Horne and Rosemary Nicol.
Dolphins: Leon Wech, Hanaan Shahwan and Glenda Rountree.
Snappers: Elaine McClintock, Phill Chisholm and Colleen Rice.
Orcas: Kevin Cameron, Jo Baxter and Gordon Jenkins.
Breakers: Tony Popplewell, Irene Donaldson and Joy Watkinson.
Marlins: Wayne Glogoski, Julie Chhour and David Payne.

After five rounds of pool play the top two in each section qualified for the round of sixteen, there were eight sections with six teams in each section.

Mairangi Bay had five teams qualify, with three of these having five wins out of five.

The three five winners were the Dolphins, Orcas and Marlins, also qualified were the Stingrays and the Snappers, both with four wins.

Missing out were the Sharks with three wins and the Breakers and Barracudas with two wins each.

Some of these losses were by the barest of margins and you needed a bit of fortune to go your way.

A blind draw was done for the round sixteen starting on Sunday morning. The weather was much kinder which made for some great bowling. The draw was not kind with four Mairangi Bay team playing each other.

The Dolphins beat Takapuna Metlifecare 2 sets to 0.
The Snappers beat the Stingrays 1 set to 0, 1 set drawn.
The Orcas beat the Marlins in a tiebreaker.

To the quarter finals.
The Dolphins beat Birkenhead The Good Home 2 sets to 0.
The Snappers lost to Birkenhead Bert Sutcliffe Ryman 2 sets to 0.
The Orcas lost to Birkenhead Barfoot and Thompson 2 sets to 0.

The semis.
The Dolphins beat Birkenhead Bert Sutcliffe Ryman 2 sets to 0. The Birkenhead team was Gary Wallace, Mike Taggart and Connie Mathieson, who beat the Snappers in the quarter final.  Mairangi were always in control with Hanaan and Glenda bowling extremely well and Leon coming in with very precise shots when needed.

Birkenhead Barfoot and Thompson (Millie and Chad Nathan and Mark Rumble) beat Takapuna House of Travel (Jerry and Jacqui Belcher and Brett O’Riley) 1 set to 0.  Millie was the hero in this game, in the last end of the first set, moving the jack with her last bowl to get two and with the power play get four to draw the set.  In the second set, fourth end on the Takapuna power play she put the jack in the ditch to stop Takapuna getting four with their power play.

Now to the FINAL. Birkenhead versus Mairagi Bay
This was an exciting and tense final.
Birkenhead won the first set 5-4.
Mairangi Bay won the second set 4-2.

Of course there had to be a tiebreaker!!

Glenda bowled two superb bowls both very close to the jack, Mark Rumble was short with his first but was very close with his second, but still two to Mairangi.  Hanaan changed her hand to avoid hitting Marks bowls, her bowl stayed out, as did her second bowl.  Chad with his last bowl, played a brilliant shot with a little bit of weight, moving both of Glenda’s bowls enough to give Birkenhead two shots, Leon played two weighted bowls to do the same as Chad but narrowly missed.

It was a great game and showed there is a place for Bowls3Five in our bowling calendar.

Well done to all our Mairangi Bay teams who all performed very well.

To our finalist team, eight wins out of nine very impressive . They also made the quarter finals last year. All three bowled superbly over the two days.

A big thankyou to all our Mairangi supporters who were there to support our teams particularly in the final. Birkenhead also had a big support team for the final.

It was a great tournament and enjoyed by all the bowlers and spectators despite the weather on Saturday.

A big thankyou also to the BNH match committee and the Browns Bay bowling club for running an excellent tournament.

Report by Alan Daniels.