North Otago clubs relish competition

The Dunedin Southern men’s team of (from left) Ross Munro, Mike Bankier, Steve Pulley and Charlie Burrell won the plate final at the Hanz tournament in Dunedin earlier this week. Photo: Linda Robertson.

North Otago bowls has taken a dramatic initiative to improve its playing standard by permitting its top three clubs to join the premier South Canterbury club competition.

The North Otago clubs in the 12-team division 1 Bristol Cup Sevens competition are Meadowbank, Awamoa and Phoenix. Games are being played at both Oamaru and Timaru.

Ron Waugh, of the Taieri Bowling Club, stands by the club’s prized wall clock. Photo: Peter McIntosh.

"We approached South Canterbury to see if they would be interested in a pennants event and it was their suggestion that our clubs would be welcome to join in their top competition," life member of North Otago Bowls Brian Papps told the Otago Daily Times.

The North Otago board wanted to strengthen bowls in the centre to reverse the decline in the number of clubs and players.

"We are down to eight clubs and only the top three are of any size," Papps said.

"This limits the types of competitions we can run. Our top players feel they lack regular tough competition and are playing against the same players over and over again."

The top four teams will play off for the title after eleven round robin matches.

The competition started in early October on the artificial rinks at Timaru.

"The initial feeling from clubs in both centres is that it is a big success," Papps said.

"Playing on the artificial surfaces was a new experience for most of our bowlers.

"They enjoy playing against different people and are relishing the tougher competition and the likely benefits to their own game."

Eleventh title

Bruce Kelly (Phoenix) beat Neville Ludemann (Maheno) 11-10 in the centre fours to win his 11th North Otago title. It was the third title for Gordon Brown and Rob Halsrow and the second for Merv Roper. It was the fourth time in the last two seasons that Ludemann had finished runner-up in a centre event. Daphne Campbell (Meadowbank) was unbeaten when winning her 12th centre title in the two-life women’s singles. She beat club mate Joyce Smillie 21-9 in the final game. She also won the title in 2005 and 2007.

Clock pride of place

A large chimes clock has had pride of place on the wall at the Taieri Bowling Club for the last 102 years.

An inscription on the clock stated that it was presented to the Taieri club in November 1914 by the Otago Daily Times bowlers "in appreciation of the hospitality given the ODT bowlers".

The clock was briefly mentioned in the 2014 minute book but it had no details of the connection between the ODT bowlers and the Taieri club.

"It used to chime every 15 minutes but the chimes are now silent," the manager of the Taieri Bowling Club Robbie Gibson said.

"But it keeps accurate time."

Buchanan hits early form

Queenstown’s ace Christine Buchanan started the season in style by winning the first two events of the Central Otago bowls season.

She won the mixed pairs with Lindsay Thomas when they beat Phil and Alyson Roxby (Hawea) 13-8 and then played a key role in the winning Queenstown women’s four.

The Queenstown four of Margaret O’Connor, Buchanan, Jane Anderson and Debra Lloyd beat Reay Allen, Mary Stevenson, Jan O’Brien and Margaret Merrilees (Alexandra RSA) 20-10 in the final.

It was the 22nd Central Otago title for Buchanan and O’Connor added a fourth bar to her gold star when she won her 25th title. It was the eleventh title for Lloyd and the ninth for Anderson. It was the second title for Thomas.

The Wanaka team of Simon Nyhof, Tom Malcolm, Richie Muir and Fin McRae won the men’s four when they beat Pat Houlahan, Martin Geary, Roger O’Brien and Ewan Kirk (Alexandra) 17-12.

It was the 11th centre title for Malcolm, ninth for Nyhof, third for McRae and the first for Muir who won the junior singles last year and the pairs in 2014.

Umpires on world duty

Two experienced Otago umpires — Joan Wilson (Middlemarch) and Russell Dawe (Kaikorai) — will officiate at this month’s World Bowls at Christchurch.

Wilson, a retired farmer and a member of the Strath Taieri Community Board, became an international umpire in 2007 and officiated at the Asia Pacific Championships in 2007, World Bowls in 2008, World Championship singles in 2013 and 2014, Asia-Pacific in 2015 and Six Nations and Trans Tasman this year.

Dawe, who has won six Bowls Dunedin titles, started umpiring in 2003 and gained his international accreditation in 2012.

He has officiated at two world champion of champion’s singles, the Asia and Pacific championships last year and the Six Nations this year.There are 33 umpires from eight countries working at Christchurch and 10 are from New Zealand.

"It is my biggest opportunity and is special for me," Dawe said.

"I’ve been aiming at this for a long time."

Pepper prevails

Destry Pepper (Milton) beat club mate Craig Wyber 15-14 in the deciding game of the South Otago men’s 1-to-10 years of bowls singles. He won five games in the round robin competition while Wyber had four wins. Kevin Reid (Waihola) was third with three wins.

The men’s 1-to-10 pairs was won by Lindsay West and Ben Peter (Owaka) with four wins from five games. Gareth Thomson and Allan McSkimming (Balclutha) finished runner-up.

South Otago beat Eastern Southland in two of the three grades in last month’s inter-centre match.

The men beat Eastern Southland by 34 points to 22 at Balclutha.

Two of the seven teams won both their fours games Rob McCauley (skip), Adam Wyber, Jamie Nicol, Brian Dodds and Graeme Hislop (skip), Neville Twaddle, Tom Dallas and Bruce Campbell.

The women’s team beat Eastern Southland by 180 points to 149 but the men’s development team lost by 19 points to 13.

South of the (Clutha) River beat North of the River by 27 points to 9 to win the Guthrey Copland Trophy. Milton Gold leads the Saturday interclub with 24 points after three rounds and are followed closely by Balclutha 23, Finegand 22, South Otago Town and Country 21, Clutha Valley 21, Owaka 20, Stirling 19 in the 12 team competition.

Kiwis in the UK Gore’s Sheldon Bagrie-Howley was beaten by Scotland’s Stewart Anderson in the first round of the PBA Scottish Open Singles at Perth 9-2, 10-7.

The next New Zealanders in action in the United Kingdom will be Dunedin’s Andy McLean and Andrew Kelly (Christchurch) in the world indoor pairs and Debbie Wilford (Taranaki) in the world indoor singles at Potter’s Resort, Norfolk, in January.