Last weekend, the 6th & 7th April, was the Bowls New Zealand National Interclub 7’s finals.
The Mairangi Bay Pearls won the North Harbour tournament to earn the right to represent North Harbour and Mairangi Bay in the National Interclub 7’s. All the winning clubs for each province met in Auckland last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Mairangi Bay women and Takapuna men were the teams representing North Harbour. The top two teams in each section made the quarter finals. All the sections were strong with Mairangi Bay up against the fancied Papakura and Hinuera. Also in the section were Martinborough and Arrowtown.
Friday play was at Howick bowling club on their quick star weed greens.
Round 1/ the Mairangi Pearls were up against Hinuera, they lost that game 2-1 with our fours getting our only win.
Round 2/ they played Arrowtown with the singles and the pairs on the televised rink. Mairangi Bay won 2-1. In the singles Elaine struggled to get her rhythm while the player from Arrowtown bowled very well to take the win. Both the pairs and the fours won.
Next round they had the bye.
Saturday they were at Blockhouse Bay, another star weed green, maybe not as quick as Howick.
Round 4/ they played Papakura winning 2-1, this was a big win as it kept them in contention. Elaine had a great win over Black Jack Leanne Poulson 21-12, the pairs had a big loss but the ever-consistent fours team had a big win 32-5.
Round 5/ a good win here and they would be in the quarter final. Hinuera and Papakura were playing each other so it was likely only one of them would qualify. Up against Martinborough, a team that qualified for the last three National interclubs, Mairangi Bay won 2-1. Elaine had another top win, the pairs were looking good, 3 down in the game but holding four on the 17th end. The Martinborough skip drew the shot dead to take away our pairs chance of a win. Our fours continued their form to take another win.
Papakura and Mairangi Bay both finished on six match points but Papakura edged Mairangi on differential. They were one match point ahead of Hinuera.
So it was a quick lunch and the off to Browns Bay for the quarter.
They played Invercargill who topped their section with eight match points.
The writer left the game at 4.40pm which had started at 3.30pm, Mairangi Bay were leading the singles and the pairs by good margins with the fours struggling to find their rhythm.
The writer was confident Mairangi could do this but unfortunately not.
Elaine continued her control in the last hour to win 21-9, the pairs were two ahead on the scoreboard and holding shot on the final end, the Invercargill skip with her last bowl picked up the jack and held four, Gaye needed to sit the second shot for the win and was slightly heavy and went into the ditch to allow Invercargill to take the win 18-16. The fours played more like themselves in that last hour but not enough for the win going down 15-6.
They were so close and just edged in that last end of the pairs which would have given them the win.
Gut wrenching, I believe was the term to describe how they felt. .
Still a great effort by this team .
The team was:
Singles: Elaine McClintock.
Pairs: Gaye Horne and Kerin Roberts.
Fours: Sheryl Wellington, Jan Gledhill, Colleen Rice and Theresa Rogers.
Reserve and great support person: Irene Donaldson.
Well done to Jan Gledhill who had a fall the previous weekend, damaging her shoulder, but declared herself fit on Thursday morning and finished out the two days.
Invercargill won their semi against Paraitutu 3-0 but lost the final to Carlton- Cornwall 3-0.
A BIG thankyou to Larry and Verna Cain, Noelene Culpan and Alan Daniels who ventured over to Blockhouse Bay to support the team. Also there were a number of club members who turned up to Browns Bay for the quarter final.
Larry and Verna, Noelene, Alan, John and Caryl Miles, Joy Watkinson, John Gledhill , Judi Farkash, Allan Wellington and Glenda Rountree. Hope I have not missed anyone.
Report by Alan Daniels.