Ring the changes
Changes need to be made to the format of the New Zealand open championships before next year's event in Taranaki.
There has been much criticism of this month's event in Christchurch because it was too cut-throat and penalised the elite and the average bowler.
A traditional feature of the open championships has been the opportunity it has given the average bowler to play against some of the best bowlers in the world.
It is costly to travel to the national event and bowlers will be reluctant to attend if they have restricted opportunities to play bowls.
The average bowler was guaranteed only three days of bowls: one day each in the singles, pairs and fours, if they did not qualify for post-section games.
When the centennial championships were held in Dunedin three years ago, bowlers were guaranteed five days of section play. This involved one day of singles and two days of pairs and fours.
Players were guaranteed 15 games instead of the nine in this year's event.
The elite players will always attend the national championships, but the average bowler will attend only if they have a reasonable number of section-play games.
The solution is to go back to the old format in section play: singles: one day with three and four-game winners qualifying for post-section play; pairs and fours: two days with six games, with four to six-game winners qualifying.
Kernaghan unavailable
Dunedin's Mike Kernaghan was not available, because of work commitments, to play for New Zealand in the Transtasman and Six Nations series in Christchurch in March.
The team is: women: Val Smith (Sydney), Mandy Boyd (Canterbury), Angela Boyd (Canterbury), Jo Edwards (Nelson), Katelyn Inch (Canterbury), Selina Goddard (Queensland) and Kirsten Griffin (Nelson); men: Paul Girdler (Gold Coast), Shannon McIlroy (Nelson), Ali Forsyth (Melbourne), Mike Nagy (Australia), Blake Signal (Hutt Valley), Andrew Kelly (Canterbury).
Sarah Scott (North East Valley) and Sheldon Bagrie-Howley (Gore) have been selected in the New Zealand Development team for the Trans Tasman series.
Historic title
Jonty Horwell (Kaikorai) reached an important milestone when he beat Bobby Johnson (Wakari) 21-19 in the final of the open singles earlier this month.
Horwell (17), a pupil at Logan Park High School, became the youngest bowler in the 109-year history of Bowls Dunedin to win a senior title.
"It meant a lot to me to win my first title. It was special to be the youngest,'' Horwell said.
"It was tough at the Andersons Bay green and I had to adapt my game to adjust to the strong wind.''
Horwell has been playing bowls for seven years and reached the last eight in the event last year. He is also a talented indoor bowler and won the New Zealand secondary schools singles title last winter.
Andersons Bay to fore ...
Andersons Bay will represent Bowls Dunedin in the national final of the women's division 2 interclub Sevens for the second time in Auckland in March. It finished runner-up in 2013.
Sonia Sinclair (77) and Gloria Shine (75) are the only survivors from the 2013 team.
Sinclair has been diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas but is determined to make the most of the remaining years of her life.
She has won four Bowls Dunedin titles and would like to win a fifth and gain her gold star.
Shine started playing bowls in 1992 and has won two Bowls Dunedin titles.
She has the ability to lift her game for the big occasions and won the New Zealand Super Bowls singles in 2004 and the national open championship fours in 1998.
The Andersons Bay four won all their games in the Bowls Dunedin regional final last month.
The other members of the team were Sue Cantwell and Tracey Penty.
Also in the Andersons Bay team are Hilda Bennett (singles) and Lesley Dabinet and Lyn Bevin (pairs). Bevin has won 11 Bowls Dunedin titles.
... and again
The men's four won its six games when Andersons Bay reached the national division 1 final for the first time.
"It means a lot to the club,'' Graeme Cocks, the only member of the fours team to have won a Bowls Dunedin title, said.
The other members of the four are Paul King, Lindsay Patrick and skip Alan Augustson.
The singles player is Andrew McCallum, who has won seven Bowls Dunedin titles.
The pairs combination is Aidan Lusby, who has represented the New Zealand PBA in world finals in the United Kingdom, and Joko Susilo, who has won two Bowls Dunedin titles.
Central Otago will be represented by Clyde in the men's division 1 and Alexandra in division 2.
Alexandra will represent the centre in women's division 1 and Clyde in division 2.
Balclutha will represent South Otago in the women's division 1 grade.
Taieri dominant
Taieri continued its domination of Dunedin women's bowls when Shona Morrison, Barbara Archer, Raylene Walshaw and Janet Swallow beat Carolyn Crawford's St Clair team 19-4 to win the open fours.
It was the first centre title for Morrison and Archer and the fifth and a gold star for Walshaw, who is a former Otago golf representative.
Skip Janet Swallow, who has been playing bowls for 20 years, won her 14th title.
Her mother, Dot McConachie, won three centre titles with the St Clair club.
Crawford was a member of her teams.
That was a time when St Clair was the dominant women's club with players of the calibre of Dawn Richards and Doreen Bell.
Titles galore
Bell won 21 Bowls Dunedin titles and is ranked third on the all-time list.
Richards won 16 titles.
At the top of the list are Gaynor Reid and Crawford with 24 titles.
They are followed by Bell 21, Lyn Rance 19, Sue Hodges 18, Daphne Hynes, Richards 16 and Swallow 14.
Crawford joined Reid at the top when she beat Dale Bourke (North East Valley) 21-7 in the open singles final this month.
Honour for Tucker
The vice-president of Bowls Dunedin, Jan Tucker, was awarded the Queen's Service Medal (QSM) in the New Year Honours list.
North Otago record
Kerry Kelly (Phoenix) equalled the North Otago women's record when she won the pairs with club-mate Gail Douglas last month.
Kelly, the mother of Black Jack Andrew Kelly, won her 23rd title and shares the record with Val Lee.
It was the 13th title for Douglas.
Bob Wilson won his 14th North Otago men's title when the Awamoa triples team beat Maheno 23-7.
It was the 13th title for Sonny Brown and the 11th for skip Craig McDonald.
