Results – 2022 – 2023 Ivan Kostanich Memorial Singles – by Lindsay Knight

  Helensville’s Bart Robertson had a vintage 2021-22 season and at the weekend gave every sign that he could be just as dominant in 2022-23.

  Robertson was in sparkling form in winning Bowls North Harbour’s Ivan Kostanich memorial open singles, a tournament which of course has special meaning for him. For it is in honour of Helensville’s most legendary player and with this win Bart has perhaps earned the right to be rated alongside in the club’s pantheon not only Kostanich but his late uncle Pat Robertson.

 In the final at Hobsonville Robertson had a comfortable 21-5 win over Orewa’s promising Matthew Higginson,

 That capped an impressive run in Sunday’s post-section play, starting with a 21-6 win over Paul Price, from Northland’s Kamo club.

He followed that with a 21-15 win over David Payne (Mairangi Bay) in the quarter-finals, then in the semi-final 21-14 over Auckland prodigy Aiden Takarua, a previous winner of this event.

 Though overpowered by the relentless Robertson in the final, it was a great effort by Higginson just to make the final, considering the field included not only many of Harbour’s best bowlers but top players from the Auckland, Counties and Northland centres.

 And Higginson is in his first season out of one to five years ranks, in which he was one of the centre’s best performed juniors. To make the final he beat two centre gold star holders in David Eades, now with Birkenhead, and Brian Wilson (Browns Bay) and a leading Auckland bowler, Bridge Park’s Phil Taylor.

 For his win Robertson won $300, Higginson $200 and each of the beaten semi-finalists, Takarua and Wilson, $100.