Results 18th & 19th May 2024
The Riverhead and Mairangi Bay clubs gave two of their members, Gordon Smith and Elaine McClintock a double cause for celebration when the centre’s champion of champion triples titles were decided at Manly at the weekend.
Smith, who the previous weekend had won the champion of champion pairs title with Grant Goodwin, reappeared with Steve Cox and Duane McDonald to win the men’s triples title for Riverhead, giving him his fifth centre championship and a gold star.
And Elaine teamed with Kerin Roberts and Irene Donaldson, to win the women’s champion of champions triples title, thus securing her 20th title and a third bar to her gold star. It has been another stellar season for her as she has already won the championship singles and the pairs with Kerin.
In the men’s final Riverhead was too strong for Orewa’s Ian Carroll, Wayne Harris and Bob Semple 18-8, but it was still a mighty feat for the beaten trio to be in the final as all three are one-to-five-year players.
The depth of the centre’s junior bowls was further shown because to qualify for the final Orewa beat another team which was almost entirely comprised of one-to-five bowlers in Manly’s Keith Benson, who is not long out of juniors, Andy Dorrance and Alan Light. Manly had a major scalp itself in the tournament, beating Helensville’s Callum Clark, Carlson Barnett and the renowned Bart Robertson 20-10 in the quarter-finals.
As well as Elaine’s milestone, Kerin gained her 11th centre title and Irene Donaldson collected her third centre championship.
In the women’s final Mairangi Bay came from behind, 8-11 down finishing strongly to beat Manly’s Trish Croot, Skye Renes and Judy Smith 17-13.
In the semi-finals Mairangi Bay beat Birkenhead’s Millie Nathan, Connie Mathieson and Loz Croot, and Manly beat Orewa’s Jill Green, the ageless Elizabeth Ring and Valarie Taylor.
Helensville’s Jeni Hart confirmed her immense promise with a win in the women’s one-to-five-year champion of champion singles, beating Brown Bay’s Jo Wyatt 21-10 in the final.
Jeni won her semi-final from Maxe Janssen (Belmont Park) 21-12 and Jo won hers from Judy Fisher (Mahurangi East) 21-16.