Open pairs title to Remi and Austin

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32531, 15 February 1971, Page 11

Open pairs title to Remi and Austin

(By our bowls reporter) Bowls is often described as a “funny” game in regard to the way reputations and form can count for very little, but if P. L. Remi (Riccarton Racecourse) amazed just about everybody by taking the Christchurch open pairs title on Saturday, it was a joke he clearly enjoyed.

Remi, who originally hails from the Chatham Islands, has bieen bowling

eight years, and before this season he had never even won anything in his own club, let alone at centre level.

On three previous occasiosn in the company of his lead of this year, T. N. Austin, he had entered the open pairs, but on each occasion participation for them had ended by mid-afternoon on the first day.

This year, the team’s first life went in the third round on the opening day, but from then on it was a different story as the pair kept its second life through to the thirteenth round, which was the final.

Even if Remi and Austin did look easy marks among the field of 200 teams which entered the tournament, the quality of their bowling in the latter rounds left no doubts as to their worthiness to accept the winners’ prizes.

SAME VEIN On the previous Sunday they had beaten some talented pairs to reach the final, and as if in answer to critics who said they had struck a purple patch of form which they might never find again, both players carried on in Saturday’s final as if there had been no break in play.

Their opponents were the proven Edge ware representatives, J. A. Hayward and A. T. G. Johnstone (s), and although both played some excellent bowls, they could not match the drawing brilliance of the Riccarton Racecourse pair. Austin wonderfully laid the foundations for victory with his almost unerring accuracy in drawing to the jack. On the few occasions he did play a loose bowl he was quick to redeem himself. In any other company Hayward would have looked a most able lead, but against Austin his ability to only occasionally draw close was not good enough. With such an advantage in front, Remi seldom had to do more than embellish a head, and he did so with many finelyjudged deliveries. Johnstone had many narrow misses with running shots, but it became apparent early that it would require an extra special effort

from him if Edgeware was to win.

Remi won six of the first nine ends, and although this only gave him a 9-5 lead, he and Austin looked the better equipped pair, and when tea was taken oh the twelfth end the score in Remi’s favour was 10-7.

The scoring increased in singles apiece until the fifteenth end when Remi got a five with a shot which succeeded in its objective although it moved the wrong bowl to do so. Remi had to take out one bowl to get the five, but his track was wide, and when a wing bowl moved the kitty the head was re-shaped to give him his five.

This piece of good fortune made the score 16-8, and it also gave Remi and Austin the motivation to raise their standards even further so that over the final stages their bowling was of an exceptional quality.

Hayward and Johnstone contributed too, but their task was hopeless, and it must have been just about the final straw when on the eighteenth end they rested four bowls within a foot and a half of the kitty and still could not get the shot, Reml drawing it dead with his last bowl.

Singles to Remi on the nineteenth and twentieth ends took the score to 21-9, and even Johnstone, who had fought hard, had to admit defeat.

The win gave Riccarton Racecourse its first centre title in about 15 years, and it was obviously a happy day for the club members who had turned out to support their representatives.

COLTS PLAY-OFF On another rink at St Albans on Saturday morning, Burnside II and Papanui II played off to find the winner of the Robinson Shield colts competition, both

teams having come through unbeaten.

Burnside 11, which was skipped by J. Gilmour, and which included J. H. Forbes, J. Gibbings and R. Marks, won, 22-15, and so gave its club, which is only eight years old. Its second centre title.

Burnside II looked in for a big win when after 14 ends it led, 19-5, but then Papanui 11, which was skipped by P. H. Nepia, staged a recovery which reduced its deficit to 15-19 playing the twentieth end. However, Burnside took the vital twentieth end and then added a single on the last end.