Bowls New Zealand – National Bowls3Five report – by Lindsay Knight

 Luck plays a part in all sporting codes, whether it’s in cricket with a batman scoring 100 after being dropped on none, the bounce of a football or a mishit golf shot bouncing further towards the hole than it should because of a fast fairway.

  In bowls luck is an accepted part of the game, with the rub of the green and wicks often deciding results. In the recently introduced three-five format there is an even greater element of luck, as Takapuna’s Wendy Jensen, Derek Brien and Ian Hardy found out at the Naenae club in the Hutt Valley at the weekend.

 As Bowls North Harbour’s representatives, having won the centre title earlier this season, they experienced heaps of luck at Naenae. Alas, just about all of it was bad.

 While there is some truth in the maxim that successful teams and players make their own luck by playing well, the Takapuna trio just couldn’t buy a trick and perhaps it was because it failed to capture the form which won the centre championship.

 The Blue Wave failed to qualify for Sunday’s post-section, winning only one of its seven qualifying games, with the eighth not being played. But four of the losses were in one end tie-breakers, which in bowls are used to decide three-five winners when the sets are squared at one each.

 So one lucky bowl in all of those tie breakers might have meant Takapuna gaining the five wins needed to qualify.

  There was at least some Takapuna and North Harbour involvement in the final. Lauren Mills, a Harbour representative player and winner of national titles with Takapuna, made the final playing for her Auckland club, Te Atatu.  However, Te Atatu, with the two sets being shared, came out on the wrong side of the tiebreaker, losing to Bay of Plenty’s Mount Megaloons.