Skoglund for Chch

Press, 4 October 1984, Page 40

Skoglund for Chch

The long-time New Zealand representative, Phil Skoglund, will be a big attraction at the Papanui Lion Masters invitation bowls tournament the weekend after next.

The tournament, which heralds the start of tournament play in Christchurch, is in its ninth year, but never before has the field been so strong.

It will be Skoglund’s first appearance, and he will be skipping one of two teams from Palmerston North. The other will be under the direction of another nation-ally-recognised player, Kevin Wing. Four other skips from outside of Christchurch have accepted invitations. One of them is Duncan McConnell, whose Kaikorai team of his brother, Stewart, their father, Bill, and Merv Andrews might even start favourite. It was good enough to finish third at the national championships last year. The other three visitors are Bob Smith (Timaru), Ken Twaddell (Stoke) and

Dave Burgess (Invercargill) who, with his third, Colin Gait, won the New Zealand pairs title a few years ago. The remaining 26 teams include all the top Christchurch combinations, some of the skips being Travis Coup (Kaipoi), the only man to have won this event twice, Morgan Moffat (South Brighton), a teammate of Skoglund’s to the world championships two months ago, Wally Wilkinson (Beckenham), Neville Hill (Rangiora), in what will be his first outing since he moved from the North Island, Ken Watson (Linwood) and Eric Tomlinson (Redcliffs), who won 1 the centre champion-of-cham-pions fours last summer. The tournament will again be played over six rounds, three Saturday and three Sunday, with the pick of the $l7OO worth of prizes going to the teams with the most wins.

In addition to Lion’s sponsorship, the Papanui Tavern is assisting with the travel costs of the visiting teams.