Central Otago won last year, but the hot favourite in this weekend’s mixed fours in Dunedin will be the experienced Southland team.
Its team includes three members of the Low family — Gary, Graham and Jan — who reached the last 16 in the fours at last month’s national championships in Taupo. The other team member is Jennifer Beattie.
Gary and Graham Low reached the quarterfinals of the pairs together and Gary Low was a member of the New Zealand indoor bowls team that beat Australia in the transtasman event in Sydney.
Last year in Alexandra, Cromwell’s John Leyser, Kevin Hurley, Ev Bisset and Gloria Hurley took Central Otago into the national finals for the first time.
They are back again for the Southern zone finals against Southland, South Otago and Otago at the Dunedin indoor bowls centre today.
Kevin Hurley, the holder of 11 Central Otago titles, has already qualified for the national Henselite singles final this season.
His wife Gloria has won 15 centre titles, Leyser 14 and Bisset one.
The Dunedin-based Otago team will be represented by the Green Island team of Daniel French, David Webb, Lyn Rance and Jenny Cowan.
French, the skip, was runner-up in the fours at the national championships and third in the singles, Rance has won 19 Otago titles and Webb was a member of the Welch Trophy team last year.
South Otago is headed by the mother-and-son combination of Shona (seven South Otago titles) and Steven Preddy (eight titles). Biddy Craig and Craig Botting have three each.
Tomorrow’s pairs will be a close battle between the Southland combination of Graham and Jan Low and South Otago’s Eileen and David Grant.
Eileen Grant tops the South Otago title list with 25 and David Grant has won 14.
The zone finals are being played at eight venues at the weekend — five in the North Island and three in the South Island.
The eight winners will contest at the national finals in Upper Hutt in September.
North Otago is competing in the South Island Eastern zone with Canterbury, Ashburton and South Canterbury in Christchurch.The mixed four is Mike Howard, Sue Jones, Graham Larcombe and Rhonda Lockerbie. Howard and Lockerbie will contest the pairs.
NZ mixed pairs, fours
Southern zone teams
• Central Otago: Pairs, Kevin Hurley, Gloria Hurley; Fours, John Leyser, Kevin Hurley, Ev Bisset, Gloria Hurley.
• Otago (Dunedin): Pairs, Lyn Rance, Max Grey; Fours, Daniel French, David Webb, Lyn Rance, Jenny Cowan.
• South Otago: Pairs, Eileen Grant, David Grant; Fours, Steven Preddy, Biddy Craig, Craig Botting, Shona Preddy.
• Southland: Pairs, Graham Low, Jan Low; Fours, Gary Low, Graham Low, Jan Low, Jennifer Beattie.
