Bowls: Australia beckons again for Walker

Ken Walker
Ken Walker
Ken Walker (Taieri) is back at the top and will represent New Zealand at the PBA Transtasman Challenge for the sixth time in Sydney in September.

Walker (68) is the only member of the New Zealand team who has played in the first five international series. Australia leads the series 3-2 after winning last year's event.

Murray Glassey (Hawkes Bay), the individual champion last year, will lead the New Zealand team for the event at the Cabramatta Bowling Club from September 22 to 23.

The other members of the New Zealand team are Craig Merrilees (Southland), Rob Ashton (Auckland) and Duane White (Forbury Park).

All members of the New Zealand team will play in the $20,000 Cabramatta City Masters after the test series.

Walker, a veteran of the Dunedin greens, looked to be out of the picture when he was ranked only 29th at the beginning of the PBA season last year.

''I didn't like being down in the lower regions,'' Walker said.

''I adopted a steely attitude and pulled myself out of the mire.''

Walker won the Scottish open singles and the international qualifying events in Dunedin and finished runner-up in these two events at the national finals to finish top of the ranking list.

He lost the Scottish singles to Ashton and the international singles to Natarsha Grimshaw (Hastings), who was the first female to win a New Zealand PBA final.

The ranking list consists of points over two seasons. The points gained in 2013 have been dropped.

Walker heads the 2015 list with 216 points and is 48 points ahead of fellow Dunedin bowler Elliott Mason (Forbury Park), who was named rookie of the year last season.

The top 10 players at the beginning of the 2015 season are: Walker 216, Mason 168, Andy McLean (North East Valley) 160, Ashton 156, Laurie Guy (Wellington) and Aidan Lusby (Dunedin) 152, Craig Merrilees (Southland) 144, Jason Heffer (Southland) and White 124, Paul Sorensen (Hawkes Bay) 120.

The new PBA season starts this weekend with events in Auckland, New Plymouth, Hastings, Dunedin and Invercargill.

The Frankton Railway Bowling Club in Hamilton has been dropped from the list for this year's national series.

It has been replaced by the Paritutu Bowling Club in New Plymouth.

A total of 46 bowlers have entered for the Dunedin events this weekend. The Scottish singles qualifier will be played on Saturday, the ranking singles on Sunday and the Shanghai singles on Monday.

Andrew McCallum (Andersons Bay), who won his seventh Bowls Dunedin title when he beat Duane White (Forbury Park) 21-19 in the champion of champions singles, is one of four bowlers returning to the Dunedin PBA this year.

The others are Graeme Jeffery (St Kilda), Miguel Rodriguez (Andersons Bay) and Andrew Kelly (Christchurch). Kelly is a member of the Black Jacks squad.

A noted newcomer to the ranks is Robert Wilson (Clutha Valley), who won the national champion of champions singles title last year.

Others joining for the first time are Murray Wilson (Fairfield), Tania Woodham (Cashmere, Christchurch) and teenagers Oliver Mason (Forbury Park) and Joe Duncan (Otematata).

Other female members of the Dunedin PBA include Trish Marr (St Clair), Dale Bourke (North East Valley), Liz Hayton (Christchurch) and Sue Smeaton (Taieri).

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