Start of surf lifesaving season ushers in new champions

Press, 2 December 1981, Page 30

Start of surf lifesaving season ushers in new champions

By

RAY CAIRNS

A surprisingly large number of championship trophies will be inscribed with new winners’ names when the competitive surf lifesaving season starts with the Lion 10 carnival at Pines Beach on Sunday. Pam Taylor (New Brighton, not competing) and Stephen Bolton (Waikuku Beach, now a senior) will not be defending their women's and junior beach sprint titles, respectively; Waikuku Beach has not entered a junior beach relay squad; and Andy Dorreen (South Brighton) is out of the junior beach flags. All of those beach events will be finalised on Sunday, as will the women’s rescue ski title, which Janice Beaumont (South Brighton) will be attempting to retain. But there are other events starting at this carnival, which will also produce new champions. For example, Kevin Baker, Waimairi’s senior malibu board champion, is back in Australia, and Dean Waru (South Brighton), last year’s junior champion, is now a senior, as is the Canterbury representative on the craft, Laurie McKeown. Even with. Baker away, those recent juniors will still

find the competition stiff, with the former national champions, Dave Conder (Taylors Mistake) and Geoff Walker (Waimairi), in a field also graced by Daryl Neate, Simon Davis and Ken Jones (all Taylors Mistake). There is also a strong hand, still, of Taylors Mistake juniors seeking to succeed Waru, Greg Beer and Dave Hill foremost amongst them. But there is a better spread of clubs represented, with Michael Mead (Waimairi), Brent Todd (Sumner), Paul Fidow (South Brighton), and Brent Ferigo and John Taylor (New Brighton) prominent among them. Gary Parker (Sumner), the only beach sprinter to defend his title, faces much of his usual opposition, in addition to Bolton: Simon Duncan (New Brighton), John Freeman (Spencer Park), Graeme Ellis (South Brighton), and David Clarke (North Beach) are the leading contenders from a field which does not include Wally Wilson (South Brighton), Tom von Biel (Spencer Park), or the later club’s itinerant Francis Lawrence.

The junior field is much more open, with perhaps Taylor the best-performed in past seasons.

Mary Gibson (Waimairi) will be striving for a hattrick of titles and retention of the beach flags, and in both that event and the sprint, a past worthy performer in Ann Aiken, also of Waimairi, may give Gibson her strongest challengers. Certainly, Waimairi looks set to succeed South Brigh-

ton in the beach relay; Spencer Park will be warmly favoured to retain its senior title; and South Brighton will be looking to Ellis to hang on to his beach flags title. For the first time, the open and junior taplins will start the seasons programme: the 10-team open taplin relay is the first event of the first carnival, which will please those who bemoan its,usually coming at the end of a long, hard day when the spectators have crept away. Waimairi has the weight of numbers — three teams — and Taylors Mistake and, a laudable effort, Sumner each have two. But Taylors Mistake is not represented in the junior taplin, with just four clubs — New Brighton, Waimairi, South Brighton and Waikuku Beach — seeking success there.

The boat and canoe crews face demanding days, with extra races on this programme to compensate for the craft not being taken to Rapahoe for the January carnival on the West Coast. But there are no drill events, and the only other events are the senior and junior ski races, and the surf races in all three grades. The senior field has 63 entrants, the women 44, but surprisingly, there are only 36 juniors scheduled to face the starter. It seems clubs may be being a little more selective.