Final four found in Para Bowls

Grant Hassall

The final four have been found in the Para Bowls New Zealand singles championships at Paritutu.

Before the heavens opened at lunchtime on Tuesday, the quarterfinals were successfully completed on the slick Paritutu front green, with the surviving players in the singles, from an original field of 46, being Chen Naude (Putaruru), Peter Horne (Naenae) Adrian Browne (Upper Hutt) and Graham Skellern (Takapuna).

They will square off in the semifinals at Paritutu, starting at 9am on Wednesday morning, with the final scheduled to commence at 2pm.

Naude beat fellow Waikato competitor Geoffrey Carseldine, who qualified top by virtue of his four wins on Monday, 20-10 in the last eight. Naude is bidding to repeat his effort from June when he made the final of the Australian Open.

The redoubtable Horne, MNZM, with more than 40 years top-flight competition under his belt, beat 26-year-old South Otago bowler Reilly Paterson – grandson of the 2011 Dominion pairs finalist, Marilyn – 21-13. Horne got off to a flyer, leading 15-0. But Paterson then plastered the jack and Horne needed to call on his vast experience to escape on a number of heads to get across the line.

Browne, a former accomplished golfer, won through 17-10 over Rod Abbott, while former Taranaki Hearld reporter Graham Skellern ousted Wayne Cowley 21-9.

The afternoon rain meant that the three sectional rounds in the drawn pairs were forced into the Indoor Complex, with shortened matches taking place.

The top two pairs, Paterson/Bernice Tyree and Kerrin Fair/Sally Engi, will square off at 11am on Wednesday for the gold medal. At the same time, the luckless Skellern/Graham Smithies – who like the aforementioned duos also had three wins – will play for bronze against Herbert Lawson/Ralph Woolley.

The annual event concludes on Thursday with a Bowls3five triples competition and dinner.

 

New faces in rep bowls this weekend

A host of new faces will feature in the Revital Fertilisers Taranaki representative bowls teams when they square off against Whanganui this Saturday.

There are numerous senior men unavailable for the fixture, while the trend of going with less experienced players continues with the women’s side.

In the senior men’s side, 2020 junior champion-of-champions winner Kurt Smith will make his senior debut, alongside Bruce Colgan and Steve Temperton. All three have previously been involved in the under-eights side. Colgan was also one of the under-eight players involved in September’s Waikato fixture.

Among the men not available are Hamish Kape – a quarterfinalist in both the big pro pairs and fours tournaments in Nelson over the past week – Daryl Read, Dean Elgar, Scott Roberts, Jordan Linn, Dave Wilson and Steve Walker.

The big name missing from the senior women’s squad is Briar Atkinson. She is enroute to the Hong Kong International Classic.

Alesha Quay, Amanda Crehan, Bridget Fletcher, Esther Ward-Campbell and Tina Atkinson-Watt will all step up to the senior ranks for the first time, although the majority were also involved in the Waikato event.

The one-day fixture sees the men compete at the Tower club, with the women at Manaia.

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki Senior men: Darren Goodin (Paritutu), Maurice Symes (Fitzroy), John Roberts (Tower), Aidan Zittersteijn (Paritutu), Kurt Smith (Paritutu), Bruce Colgan (West End), Craig De Faria (West End), Adam Collins (Paritutu), Steve Sabine (Inglewood), Steve Temperton (West End).

Selector: John Garrud. Team Manager: Bruce Hall.

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki eight-years-and-under men: Corey Brookes (West End), Brian Pearce (Stratford-Avon), Peter van Dyk (Inglewood), Levi Davis (Opunake), Mike Baldwin (Paritutu), Evan Jones (Fitzroy), Simon Rowe (Fitzroy), Rob Clark (Manaia), Doug Clark (Manaia), Craig Murray (Oakura). Selector: John Garrud. Team Manager: Graham Reive.

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki Senior women: Alesha Quay (Paritutu), Amanda Crehan (Paritutu), Bridget Fletcher (Paritutu), Chris Commane (Opunake), Esther Ward-Campbell (Opunake), Gale Fache (Paritutu), Jackie Moeahu (Paritutu), Leanne Halls (West End), Tina Atkinson-Watt (Paritutu) and Trish Howard (West End)

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki eight-years-and-under women: Alethea Rowlands (Tower), Gloria Wolfe (Waitara), Irene Taunt (Manaia), Janet Ravji (Stratford-Avon), Judy Crawford (Fitzroy), Linda Kape (Okato), Rita Davey (Opunake), Shelley Baldwin (Paritutu), Shelley Clark (Manaia), Sheryll Taylor (Stratford-Avon).