Hawera pair play dominant role

Taranaki bowlers have wasted little time settling into the new season, with high-level competition games already underway.

The TCM-sponsored champion-of-champions series, originally scheduled for April, took centre stage last weekend, as it will also this coming weekend. The finals are scheduled for October 17 at Paritutu.

And dominating proceedings so far are the Hawera Park’s Pauline Kennedy (pictured left) and Kristin Stampa (pictured right).

On Saturday at Opunake, the duo advanced to the pairs final after they defeated Margie Carey and Elaine Hodge (New Plymouth) 22-15 in the semifinals.

Then on Sunday at West End, combining with Ella Smailes and Dorothy Turner, Kennedy and Stampa also made the final of the fours.

In the semifinals of that discipline, the Hawera Park side defeated Inglewood’s Miriam Taylor, Janette Brocklehurst, Myra Midgley and Cindy Nicoll 17-7.

The rich vein of form continues an excellent start to the season by Stampa especially after she had combined with Kapiti’s Ronnie Crone to win the prestigious Paraparaumu Beach invitation pairs in September.

Both women’s finals will be between Hawera Park and Fitzroy and shape as interesting contests.

In the pairs, Carolyn Wilks and Robyn Klenner advanced to the decider after three impressive wins, the last coming over Lorraine Heal and Trish Howard (West End) 20-13.

Rhonda Adams’ team of Faye Hill, Norma Rothwell and Vickie Kelly are the opponents in the fours final after they ousted Debbie Emery, Colleen Martin, Molly Nagle and Susan Cottam (West End) 18-13 in the last four.

In the men’s pairs at Rahotu on Saturday, Dean Elgar (West End) also continued his powerful start to the new season. Combining with Bruce Hall, Elgar trounced Jim Rawlinson and Mark Dudley (Hawera Park) 26-4 in the semifinals.

West End will play Stefan McCartain and Brendon Walton in the final after the Paritutu pair beat Evan Jones and Ron Gadsby (Fitzroy) 21-13.

The men’s fours final will be between Laurence Hori, Mario Marinovich, Tobyn Hori and Kelly Hill (New Plymouth) and Phil Drought, John Zittersteijn, Rodger Hassall and Darren Goodin (Paritutu). Hill’s team ended the hopes of Anton Mora, Allan White, Ron Gadsby and John Kurta (Fitzroy) 19-7 in one semifinal, with Goodin defeating Jason Allan, Cameron Horo, Gavyn Horo and Brent Heazlewood (Rahotu) 19-8 in the other.

This Saturday sees the men’s singles at Hawera Park and the women’s singles at Manaia. On Sunday, the men play triples at Vogeltown and the women play triples at Fitzroy.

Meanwhile, the Taranaki secondary school team, sponsored by TCM, Harcourts Team Green and the Flamingo Motel, was a resounding victor over Wellington 8-0 in a clash in Waikanae last week. The side comprised Daniel Whitaker (FDMC), Cameron Horo (Opunake), Luca Dobson (FDMC), Clarence Chan (FDMC), Nathan Goodin (Opunake), Claudia Chan (SHCG), Briar Atkinson (SHGC) and Briar Dravitzki (SHGC).