BNH Quadrangular – Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd October – by Lindsay Knight

 Harbour won the premier one tournament with six wins from the nine games and with the premier two team also performing creditably was the overall winner.

 Harbour finished on 33 overall, Auckland on 31, Bay of Plenty 30 and Northland 13.

 The four of Wendy Jensen (skip), Lauren Mills (three), Jamie Chen (two) and Millie Nathan (lead) spearheaded the win being successful in all three games, while singles specialist Selina Goddard won two from three.

 Her only loss was to Auckland’s consistent: Linda Ralph.

 The pair of Elaine McClintock and Theresa Rogers won only one game, but that was in the first round, which with Selina and the four also winning put Harbour in a great position for the eventual success.

 Perhaps the only disappointment was that because of the vile weather conditions on the weekend the event was switched to indoor carpet rinks, meaning the chance to gain match practice at Browns Bay was missed. This will be the venue for the national finals on October 15-16.

 The premier two team was a close third behind Auckland and Bay of Plenty. The pair  of Adele Ineson and Keiko Kurohara, the latter only returning from Australia the day before, was in great form and in the four were two juniors Skye Renes and Kathy Stevens, who had been in the winning one-to-five team on Saturday.

  The men’s premier one team finished third in its quadrangular behind Bay of Plenty and Auckland, with Northland fourth.

 Selection convener Gary Stevens the result was a fair reflection of the preparation for the coming season. “We are still in the process of finalising our ongoing squad,” he said. “We are happy enough with the performances of most players and selected teams.”

 Simon Poppleton, Jeremy Brosnan, Brent Malcolm and Colin Rogan recorded wins against Auckland and Bay of Plenty teams, but after beating Bay of Plenty the new pairs combination of Daymon Pierson and David Payne struggled against Auckland’s powerful Tony Grantham and Jamie Hill.

 There were some very good performances by the premier two team which finished second to Bay of Plenty, beating Auckland for the runners-up spot on the shot differential.

 Singles player Jerry Belcher had only one win, but lost his other two by a single shot. That was the record, too, for the four and the fact there were four such narrows Stevens felt showed how much potential was in the team.

 An experienced pairs line-up of David Eades performed well to win two games and draw the other.

Thanks to an excellent result by the one-to-five-year women’s team and a solid second by the men North Harbour came out overall winner of the 1 to 5 year quadrangular.

 The women’s pairs team of Sharon Parker and Jeni Hart, both from Helensville, was especially impressive. Hart, indeed, is only a second year-player but has a strong bowls pedigree, as the daughter of the late Helensville stalwart, Terry Cullen.

 The triple skipped by Irene Costello had what proved to be a pivotal win over the highly fancied Northland. That was the triple’s only win but with Irene leading and Michelle McDonald skipping there was an unlucky one-shot loss to Bay of Plenty.

 Skye Renes at skip and Kathy Stevens at three headed a fine effort by the four in winning all three games. Karen Vaisser, from Mahurangi, was excellent, too, at lead.

 Harbour scored six wins, followed by Northland five, Auckland four and Bay of Plenty three.

 It was a particularly fine effort with two key players, Hanaan Shawan and Gaye Horne unavailable. Said women’s selection convener Trish Croot: “The team played very well and I am extremely pleased with the way they stepped up and took ownership.”

 The men’s one-to-five team missed out on the countback to Auckland but had a much superior points differential to Bay of Plenty and so was a clear second.

 A quality competition was reflected in the fact three of the Bay side were also members of that centre’s premier two team.