Top bowlers at Burnside

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 20

Top bowlers at Burnside

The Sumner bowler,. Neville Poole, should not find himself out of his depth when he contests the national champion-of-champions singles tournament on the Burnside greens this weekend.

The 38-year-old Poole, who this summer won his second Christchurch singles championship, has yet to win an event even approaching the importance of this Johnnie Walker-sponsored tournament, but then neither have the bulk of his rivals. Poole unluckily missed out on one of the byes that were going in the first round, but has still fared reasonably well in the draw.-

No easy games can be expected in a tournament which wi 11 bring together the singles champions from each of the- 25 centres throughout New Zealand, but, for a start anyway, Poole will not face any opponents with national reputations. In .fact, he is well away from ’ the two players who must be considered the favourites in a field which is surprisingly light in wellknown bowlers at the top level. The favoured pair are Vic Sellars x (Manawatu), the only Dominion singles champion in the field, and Peter Bryant, the rising star from Hawke’s. Bay. . Bryant was the outstanding player in this season’s inter-centre Rothmans tournament. His unbeaten run of eight singles . wins was mainly responsible for Hawke’s Bay’s somewhat unexpected over-all victory.

Sellers and Bryant both have byes through the first .round, and Bryant could have an (interesting first game when he meets Robin Milne, the top South Canterbury bowler of recent times. This is the seventh year that the tournament has been played, and it will be the first time that Christchurch has been the venue. The only Christchurch success was in the first year, 1975, when the late Cyril Thompson (Oxford) was the winner.

There will be three rounds tomorrow, • with the semifinals and final on Sunday, the final beginning at. 12.30 p.m. For the first and sec-ond-round losers there is a plate event. All the championship games will be 25 shots up, with no time limit. The full field is:—

J. Godwin (Northland), G; Judson (Auckland), J. McCullagh (Counties), B. Black (Waikato-Thames Valley), J. Grafas (Bay of Plenty),j G. Thompson (Gisbbme/East Coast), P. Bryant (Hawkes Bay), V. Sellars (Manawatu), G; Jones (Wanganui), M. Symes (Taranaki), P. Hoar (Wairarapa), C. Whiteman (Wellington).

C. Roughan (Marlborough), R. Harding (Nelson), E. Sara (Buller), R. Wilson (West Coast), N- Poole (Christchurch), R. Milne (South Canterbury), K. McKenzie (North Otago), T. Thomson (Dunedin), A. McKinnel (Otago Central), R. Dotting (South Otago),- J. Flynn (Southland).