Top billing to Linwood pair

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 26

Top billing to Linwood pair

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

When Morgan Moffat last year added his name to the list of top bowlers who have moved away from the Linwood club the view was widely held that Linwood’s days as the top men’s club in Canterbury might be numbered. Performances in the season just ended would indicate that the number is higher than anyone would dare to guess. Linwood may not have been as dominant as it has been in some recent seasons, but in performances over-all it still had the best record of any club in the centre. Linwood certainly had the best individual in Ken Watson. Success was nothing new for Watson — he enjoyed plenty, including the winning of a gold star, while playing for Moffat — but this summer Watson firmly established himself as a top player, and a top skip, in his own right. Watson won only one centre title, the open singles, but he was the beaten finalist in both the champion-of-champions pairs and fours. He began the season well with a win in the Papanni Lion Masters invitation fours, was later third in the Canterbury club’s centennial tournament, had a very good Dominion tournament in Dunedin and was fully deserving of his South Island selection. But what puts Watson on the pedestal was the quality of his play. Whether playing singles, leading (as he did in the Christchurch Rothmans team), or skipping there was

undeniable class about his bowls. Oddly enough his best tournament was one he lost. This was the champion-of-champions fours and it took an exceptional display from his rival in the final, Eric Tomlinson (Redcliffs) to deny him this title. This final was, without doubt, the best game seen all season. Sonny Calder, as a partner of Watson’s, had another solid season and John Saundercock’s team of Bernie Timms, Rod Kimber and Roger Glendinning showed that even without Moffat Linwood still had a team capable of winning the preEaster fours. Bill McDonald (Spreydon) would rank second to Watson as the best individual. McDonald’s big moment came when he won the Countrywide satellite singles, and pocketing $6OO for his efforts, but he also won the champion-of-cham-pions triples in company with Alan Briden and finished second to Watson in the open singles. There was another rewarding season for the Kaiapoi trio of George Matthews, Travis Coup and Alan Griffin. Griffin, in fact, was the only player to win two centre titles, the first as No. 3 for Matthews in the Christmas fours and the second as Coup's lead in the champion-of-champions pairs.

Matthews and Coup were also runners-up in the open pairs and the champion-of-champions triples and Coup

was in the money as well in the Countrywide singles. For consistency of performance, and more especially considering that Kaiapoi is not a large club, it would be bard to go past Coup and company. Pat Doig (Elmwood) was easily the most promising new player to emerge dur-

ing the season. He was beaten in two centre finals, the champion-of-champions singles and the Pre-Easter fours, was fourth in the open pairs, and went a long way in both the Countrywide singles and the open singles. It was quite remarkable for a bowler in his first year out of juniors to accomplish so much, more especially in the dual roles of singles player and as a skip in pairs and fours. Doig has certainly put his Elmwood club back on the competitive map. By winning three of the four divisions in the Threefours, including the top division, Papanui maintained its reputation as the club with the greatest depth of strength. However, its champion-of-champions performances were disappointing, although there was ample compensation in Owen Tomlinson and Karl - Dolheguy’s victory in the open pairs.

Stan Whiteford (St Albans) struck a blow for the older bowlers by winning, at the age of 72, the champion-of-champions singles and Robin Howman (Burnside), who is 24, did more than enough, most notably in getting to the Countrywide final, to enhance his reputation as the best of the younger brigade. On the women’s front, Linwood continued to reign supreme. It won three centre titles, Denise Page taking the pairs double and her win over Vera Truscott in the champion-of-cham-pions final was an exceptional performance, and Lex Kimber the open fours. A former Linwood member, Pauline Needham (now Sumner), won the champion-of-champions singles and April McDonald (Burwood) showed a return to form by winning the open singles, and also finishing equal third with another Christchurch bowler, Altha Triggs, in the national singles. Mrs Page would probably have to be the woman bowler of the season, but pushing her hard would be Alice Whiting (Woolston W.M.C.). Mrs Whiting reached three centre finals, and after losing the first two she was a popular winner of the third. The dampness of the summer caused quite a few complications, and while most greens were of a high standard some of those used for major events were below par. A new system next season of checking greens shortly before they are to be used should overcome this weakness.