Yes it was a Pearler performance by the Mairangi Bay Pearls in the women’s interclub 7’s final at Browns Bay on Saturday.
The team was Singles Elaine McClintock, Pairs Gaye Horne and Irene Donaldson, Fours Sheryl Wellington, Jan Gledhill, Colleen Rice and Theresa Rogers.
Louise Ball played in the Fours, replacing Colleen Rice in the first Saturday qualifying round robin, where the team qualified top for the round robin final.
The previous Sunday they played Birkenhead in the first of the round robin games in the final.They beat Birkenhead 4 points to 1.
Their second game was against Orewa, this was called off half-way through the game due to heavy rain. This game was finished on Saturday and Mairangi Bay claimed the win 4 points to 1.
Takapuna beat Orewa 5-0 and Birkenhead 4-1. So the third round robin game was a true final Mairangi Bay v Takapuna.
Elaine played Selina Goddard, a current New Zealand Black Jack in the singles. She started strong and built to a good lead. Selina fought back to narrow the lead, but Elaine kept her focus and composure to take the win 21-15. In the pairs Gaye and Irene were up against a very experienced team, Wendy Jenson and Lauren Mills. Wendy and Lauren started very strong and continued that lead through the game. All down to the fours, whoever wins take the title. Mairangi Bay were up against another strong Takapuna team, Lisa Dickson, Robyne Walker, Adele Ineson and Anne Dorreen.
Mairangi started well with some great lead bowls from Theresa, Collen coming in with second shot and Jan making those critical bowls when the team were down and Sheryl also doing the same. Takapuna were under pressure which forced Lisa Dickson to kill three ends. Because of this, time was running out. Takapuna picked up a three, they had a sniff but Mairangi kept their cool to win the last two ends.
Well done Mairangi Bay, that was some performance.
They will now represent North Harbour in the National Interclub 7’s on April 4/5/6/7th at Browns Bay.
The Men’s title was a battle to the end between Takapuna and Birkenhead. Takapuna getting there in the end to win the title and a position in the National final.
The Division 2 Mens final was also played on Saturday at Birkenhead, this too was round robin final between four teams. The Mairangi Bay Stingrays qualified top in their section. The team was Singles Wayne Glogoski, Pairs Leon Wech and Gordon Jenkins and Fours Murray Radojkovich, Stuart Jamieson, Michael Thomas and Barry McCrystal. Our team had a strong start against Takapuna winning 4-1. Wayne narrowly lost the singles. Leon and Gordon had a big win and the fours also, with Murray rescuing his team regularly, much to the disgust of the Takapuna team.
Manly bet Browns Bay 4-1
Round 2 saw Mairangi playing Manly, Manly dominated this game winning 5-0.
Final round, Manly were upset by Takapuna losing 4-1.
Mairangi needed to win all disciplines for the win.
Wayne won his singles, Leon and Gordon drew their pairs and the fours managed some critical bowls in the last two ends to sneak the win.
Final points Manly 10 and Mairangi Bay 9.5. Oh so close, but a great effort by this team.
Many thanks to our markers, Judi Farkash, Rosemary Nicol, Glenda Rountree and Alan Telford.
Report by Alan Daniels