Christchurch poised for strong fours title bid

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34046, 9 January 1976, Page 3

Christchurch poised for strong fours title bid

( From

KEVIN McMENAMIN)

DUNEDIN. Christchurch teams are poised to make a strong bid for the fours title at the national bowls tournament in Dunedin, although there is still a long way to go.

When the section rounds ended today, there were 118 teams with the minimum six wins necessary to qualify, and 26 of them are Christchurch entries. Tomorrow the sudden death post-section matches will begin and the final will be reached Monday. Of the 26 Christchurch qualifiers — which is not a bad proportion out of the 82 which contested the event out of a total entry of 462 — six recorded their sixth win in the sixth round on Wednesday. Two miss These were the teams skipped by Bob Ashcroft and Ken Murray (both Linwood), Ron Spear (Edgeware), Bruce Sinclair (St Albans), Wally Wilkinson (Beckenham), and Brian McGowan (Papanui). Today only Wilkinson and McGowan maintained their perfect records, but with the pressure off them most sixgame winners relaxed a little, and Wilkinson, in fact, had a respite by temporarily demoting himself to lead. The Christchurch skips to make their positions safe with a sixth win this morning were Jack Tappin (Papanui), who has done extremely well with a team of colts, Pat Butts (St Albans), who only came into a field as a replacement, Ken Shivas (Burnside), John Gill (Papanui), Jack Dale (Burwood). Stan Lawson (Christchurch). Alan Stuart (Burnham Camp), Keith Jones (Leeston), and Tom Dixon (South Brighton).

I There were two Christchurch skips who were on five wins overnight who ; missed out in the morning -nd then got their sixth win in the afternoon. They were Dave Trainor (Papanui), who gave his club the excellent return of four qualifiers from seven teams, and Bert Lawson (Methven). Trainor lost, 16-20. in the morning and his team was breathing noticeably easier after coming out on top, 22-19, in a tense afternoon struggle. Lawson had fewer worries, being comfortably in front throughout most of his key game. Comfortable wins Christchurch teams to lose all hope of qualifying when they were beaten for a third time in the morning round were those skipped by Dave Martin (Dallington). Bill Johnston (Woolston W.M.C.), Bruce Doig (Rakaia), who lost 22-24, Bob Lindsay (Allenton), M. Westrupp (United), and A. N. Weaver (Rakaia), who lost 21-20. C. K. Manson (Shirley), was beaten 24-18 by a team that was out of the race and which was beaten 8-30 in the final round. At the start of the day there . were 17 Christchurch teams facing the tough assignment of having to win both their seventh and eighthround matches to qualify—nine accomplished the task. The skips in this category were Kevin Darling (Linwood), Cliff Cox (Barrington), Eric Craw (Lincoln), Ernie McCahon (Elmwood), Harry Scrimgeour (Rangiora), Arnold Memory (Woolston W.M.C.), Larry Saunders (Hoon Hay W.M.C.), Jim Rowe (Rangiora) and Doug Ellwood (Hornby). And for the most part they all got their two wins com-

fortably enough, although in some cases there was cause for anxiety until well down the board. McCahon had to fight hard to win his last game, 23-18, and Craw had an even narrower margin, 26-23. Narrow loss However, although Christchurch teams came through in force, there were still a number of candidates for the “crying room”. Foremost among them would have to be Walter Hadlee (Fendalton), Arthur Cockerell (Burnside). R. S. Lester (Riccarton W.M.C.), and M. L. Nairne (Leeston). All four needed just one win today to qualify

and all four were beaten twice.

Hadlee and Cockerell had a lot in common. They were on the same green and each lost their first game by six points and their second by a heart-breaking one point. Another to fail narrowly was the Papanui skip, Keith Browning. He met John O’Kane (Nelson) in the last round and both teams needed to win to qualify. In a protracted duel, O’Kane was successful, 22-21. Although most of the favoured teams survived there were a few surprised failures. The most notable being that of Vic Sellars (Northern), who next month will represent New Zealand at the world championships in South Africa. No effort spared Sellars has had a bad tournament and although he had a useful team he could only blame himself for his fours demise. He needed to win his last game to qualifv, but went down 20-25 after dropping an eight on the thirteenth when he drove and took out all his own bowls. Before the drive he was three down. Other well-performed players who failed to beat the cut were Basil Moore (Carlton), the singles runnerup last week, Mark Marinovich (Oratia), who is contesting his twenty-ninth successive national tournament, the colourful Tony Govorko (Te Puke), who may have run out of luck, but not cigars, and the 1958 Commonwealth Games pairs gold medallist, Ted Pilkington (Balmoral). Govorko, on five wins, had the misfortune to meet a former title-holder, Gordon Jolly (Leith), in the eighth round. Jolly had already qualified, but he spared no effort and won, 28-20.