Bowls: Waikato too good in rep bowls

Grant Hassall

Even after an impressive opening session, Taranaki was unable to contain Waikato in a representative bowls fixture at the Paritutu Indoor Complex over the weekend.

The visitors won both the men’s and women’s sections nine games to six to comfortably retain the Ron Buchan Plate.

Perhaps Taranaki used the fixture as more a trial than Waikato did. Waikato arrived with just one reserve in each gender, whereas the Taranaki men had four and the women three. And they were all used throughout the weekend over the five rounds.

Craig De Faria, who admittedly has had the advantage of playing regularly at Paritutu during the winter, returned a 100% win-record. But he was only used in three games.

The better Waikato performers were Debbie White, the reigning Dominion singles titleholder, who won four games from five skipping the pair, and Malcolm Moore.

Moore, who actually played a couple of tournaments with Buchan eons ago, impressed as a cool customer. He has “19 or 20” Waikato titles and certainly did well to craft four wins from five games, too.

Taranaki looked clearly superior in round one, before Waikato found their gear. Jasmine Merrick and Amanda Crehan both gave good accounts of themselves, with three wins from four games, while in the men, after De Faria, Kurt Smith and Bart Robertson both won two matches out of three.

Although the defeats were by narrow margins, Camron Horo and Daryl Read, who some observers had labelled as heading towards the certainty category for the seven-man intercentre, both managed just one win from four outings each.

But with a truckload of bowls in the coming months, players in both squads have plenty of opportunities. So, too, do the selectors, coupled with the knowledge of combinations from the Waikato and earlier Whanganui fixtures.

A moment’s silence was held before the commencement of play on Sunday to remember Tower’s Russell Hardy, a double gold star holder, who died on Saturday after a short illness.

Hardy commenced bowls in 1983 and after making the Taranaki junior singles final in 1988, was thrusted into the senior 15-man side later that year. It was a rude awakening, with Hardy receiving plenty of criticism. “He’s useless,” one experienced teammate said to another in the opening game which, despite the comment, ended in victory over Whanganui.

Possessing a good attacking game and confidence in his own style, Hardy accumulated 11 Taranaki titles, the best of which was the 2003 Open fours. Hardy skipped his Nolantown side, which had narrowly lost the final the previous year.

Hardy’s other Taranaki titles came in the champion-of-champions (singles 2001, pairs 1998, 2002 and 2004, triples 2006 and fours 1998 and 2016), the open triples (1994) and the New Year fours (2002 and 2005).

He became a regular in the Taranaki representative side, despite the initial scruples, and was part of the Taranaki-Wanganui side that won the national Super Eights in 1999. In later years Hardy became an advisor to the rep team and then men’s selector.

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Taranaki second in bowls event

Taranaki finished runner-up in the New Zealand under-26 intercentre challenge in Wellington on Sunday, August 24.

In the third edition of the event, Taranaki has now had a first, a second and a third in the eight-team tournament.

The Taranaki side of Briar Atkinson, Camron Horo, Nathan Goodin, Joel Chard and Luca Dobson excelled during section play, winning 12 games from 14, to finish top seeds.

However, they found Canterbury too hot to handle in the final.

Canterbury took both morning rubbers, in the pairs and triples, and then rounded out the contest by taking the fours, too. Atkinson’s 21-8 singles win had given Taranaki some hope of a turn-around but it was not to be.

Atkinson finished with three singles wins from four games, to finish top of the players in four-bowl discipline.

Her and Horo, with four wins from five, were the best pairs combination on show, as were the four of Chard, Dobson, Goodin and Horo. They won three out of four.

This weekend, at Paritutu, Taranaki will take on Waikato for the Ron Buchan Trophy. Three rounds will be played on Saturday, from 9am, with a further two rounds on Sunday, from 8.30am.

Both selectors have named larger squads, with nine players involved each round, of which three are required to be of eight-year-and-under experience. Men’s selector, John Gray, has the luxury of bringing in both Darren Goodin and Adam Collins, after they were unavailable for last month’s Whanganui fixture.

Kurt Smith has also been included. Smith was recently announced as the Para men’s player for the New Zealand side that will take part in a newly established World Cup which is being held in Malaysia in November.

Women’s selector, Chris Commane, has, as earmarked, introduced Rhonda Adams, Maree Gadsby, Trish Howard and Briar Atkinson, after a swag of younger players were used against the Whanganui.

Men’s team: Craig De Faria, Bruce Colgan, Kelly Hill, Darren Goodin, Dean Elgar, Adam Collins, Camron Horo, Bart Robertson, Daryl Read, Kurt Smith, Nathan Goodin, Simon Rowe and Gavin Benton.

Women’s team: Rhonda Adams, Maree Gadsby, Trish Howard, Briar Atkinson, Alethea Rowlands, Vivienne Hall, Rita Davey, Amanda Crehan, Alesha Quay, Tina Atkinson-Watt, Jasmine Merrick and Judy Crawford.

Meanwhile, Paritutu’s Don Christensen and Cheryll Sharrock are Taranaki’s last hope of medalling in the national champion-of-champions series when they contest the mixed pairs in Tauranga from this Friday.

All of the past eight Taranaki entries have missed out on the semifinals, with just two of the teams qualifying for post section – Fitzroy’s Paul Spurdle, Simon Rowe, Chris Campny and John Gray (fours) and Paritutu’s Kurt Smith and Daryl Read (pairs).