The Battle of the Bridge – 1 December 2024
North Harbour, both in the men’s and women’s open contests, enjoyed a double success over its Auckland opponents when the 2024 version of the Battle of the Bridge was held at the Howick club on Sunday. But unfortunately, their excellent efforts weren’t enough to give Harbour the overall honours, with both the men’s and women’s development teams and the men’s and women’s one-to-five representative teams being shaded by their Auckland counterparts to leave Auckland on 43 match points to Harbour’s 38.
The men’s open team started impressively winning six of the eight singles matches, through Gordon Smith, Daymon Pierson, Mark Rumble, Neil Fisher and Steve Cox. Fisher and Carlson Barnett then skipped their fours to set up a 9-5 win. But in the development team’s singles the 6-2 margin achieved by the open men was reversed, with only Jerry Belcher and David Payne winning their matches. There was a recovery in the four pairs games but not enough to prevent a 7-6 loss in this division.
Fresh from her fabulous exploits in the world champion of champions event at Browns Bay, Millie Nathan became one of the mainstays of the women’s open team. She skipped Sheryl Wellington, Robyne Walker and Keiko Kurohara to a draw in the opening fours to partially offset the loss in the other game by Wendy Jensen, Lauren Mills, Elaine McClintock and Colleen Rice. But after that show start Harbour recovered with Robyne, Keiko, albeit by just 21-20, Elaine and Wendy all winning their singles and Sheryl earning a draw. A 7-5 win was then secured when all but one of the pairs was lost, with Millie and Elaine especially dominant in theirs. It was a satisfying return, too, for Robyne and Keiko who with two wins and a draw were unbeaten for the day.
There were good wins in the women’s development team’s singles, from Theresa Rogers, Adele Ineson and Gaye Horne, but there was only one win each in the fours and pairs disciples for a 9-5 defeat.
Shaun Goldsbury, Clinton Smith and David den Hertog won their one-to-five men’s singles and Shaun skipped his four to a win. But defeats in the other fours match and only one win in the pairs meant another 9-5 loss.
The women’s one-to-five category was also lost, but only by a fine margin, and the 8-6 score line might have been reversed had the luck gone Jeni Hart’s way in what was a 21-20 singles loss.
Julie Chhour, Carol Voshaar and Deanne Bronlund won their singles games, with the fours being shared, with that skipped by Karen Vaissiere winning for Harbour and the pairs, too, were shared with Harbour’s two winners being the combinations skipped by Karen and Jeni.
