Interclub Report – 1 & 2 March 2025

In the most dramatic circumstances Browns Bay in the men’s and Mairangi Bay in the women’s qualified as the centre’s representatives at next month’s national sevens interclub finals in Wellington.

Browns Bays, thanks to a brilliant last bowl by fours skip Neil Fisher, won a thrilling men’s final from a strong challenge by Riverhead, and Mairangi Bay edged out Takapuna by the finest of margins in the women’s five-team round-robin.  Riverhead looked as if it had won the men’s final when it was holding game with Fisher left to play the final bowl. Riverhead had earlier won the pairs through Billy Fulton and Tony Garelja over David Eades and Gideon van den Berg only to have that countered by Colin Rogan’s 21-16 win over Gordon Smith in the singles.  So the outcome came down to what was an absorbing fours battle between Browns Bay’s Fisher, John Walker, Jean Viljeon and Lindsay Gilmore and Riverhead’s equally formidable Steve Cox, Grant Goodwin, Duane McDonald and Brent Catton.

Coming to the last head 12-11 and then holding the shot, Riverhead looked to have the win, only for Fisher, with his final bowl, to sit out the shot bowl and secure three for himself and a 14-12 win and the title for the second time in the past three seasons.

In the semi-finals Browns Bay beat a gallant Beach Haven 4-1, and Riverhead won by a similar margin over Mairangi Bay.  It was an especially commendable effort by a Beach Haven team of a newcomer from Northland, Chris Gore (in the singles), Roy Parker and Wayne Glogoski (pairs) and Brian Nolan, Karl Glenn, Nigel Armstrong and Rick Markovina (fours) to go so far.  Parker, a former stalwart of Birkenhead, and Armstrong, formerly of Northcote, are both into their 80s and Glenn is still a junior. The four owed its success to the excellent leading by the seasoned Markovina.

The sort of winning bowl played under pressure by Fisher was matched by Mairangi Bay’s Theresa Rogers’ composure in the first round of the women’s round-robin against Takapuna’s Keiko Kurohara.  This was another rousing contest in which the players matched shot for shot with the final end being reached with Keiko ahead 20-19 and holding shot, only for Theresa, as Fisher was to do in the later men’s final, to sit out Keiko’s shot bowl and clinch the result 21-20.

Incredibly, the pairs match between Takapuna’s Lisa Dickson and Anne Dorreen and Mairangi Bay’s Elaine McClintock and Kerin Roberts was drawn, as was the fours between Mairangi Bay’s Sheryl Wellington, Jan Gledhill, Colleen Rice and Julie Chhour and Takapuna’s Robyne Walker, Adele Ineson, Lyn Calver and Jan Calcott.
Takapuna then went on to win its remaining three matches, against Birkenhead, Helensville and Browns Bay without dropping a game, while Mairangi Bay in also winning its remaining three did concede a couple of losses.  But the game win by the mere one shot by Theresa over Takapuna was enough for it to take the title for the second consecutive year. Theresa was Mairangi Bay’s key player in the singles and among her other wins was one over Birkenhead’s Millie Nathan and another over promising Browns Bay junior Jo Wyatt.

There was a stunning result in the division two any combination competition with one of the centre’s most remote clubs, Mahurangi East based at Snell’s Beach, beating what on paper seemed an almost invincible Birkenhead combination.  Mahurangi East won the final 4-1, despite securing only 46 shots to Birkenhead’s 51. The winning Manhurangi East team was David Hickey, Mike Bartlett, Todd Robertson, Ian Thrush, Martin Hitchins, Phil Payne, Tom Cowie and Ross Ruddell.  The Birkenhead side pushed back to the runners-up position contained several who have been centre champions, and looked a line-up capable of beating many division one sides: Adam Richardson, John Janssen, Robbie Henson, Willie Tonga, Chad Nathan, Evan Thomas, John Hindmarch and Mike Haggart.