Vacancies in Games bowls team

Press, 21 February 1986, Page 14

Vacancies in Games bowls team

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

The teams announced last week for the interisland • bowls clash at Whangarei in the middle of next month underlines the problems the national selectors are having in putting together a team for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games later this year. For a start they were just lists of names. The selectors, apparently, have still to make up their minds about who will play where. For two years now the island teams have been made up entirely of amateurs, so it was only natural that the match this time should be used as a final Games trial. However, this was not always the intention. Late last year the plan was to announce the seven Games nominations (and because only seven are required it will be a formality for the N.Z.O.C.G.A. to rubber stamp these nominations into selections) at the end of the Dominion tournament in Christchurch. But so disappointing were a number of the leading contenders at that Christchurch tournament that the selectors Messrs Kerry Clark, Stan Seear and John Malcolm, decided to wait until March in the hope that a clearer picture would emerge. Little should be read into the failure of Morgan Moffat (Canterbury) and lan Dickison (Dunedin) to win South Island selection. Both men are certain Games selections, Dickison as tM singles player and Mofffet as the skip of the four.

Moffat, together with four professionals, has been included in the New Zealand team to play a three-test series against Australia at Matamata earlier next month, so there is no doubt that he is still in favour. If selected for Edinburgh, Moffat will be off to his fourth Commonwealth Games. He represented Scotland at Christchurch in 1974 and New Zealand at Edmonton in 1978 and Brisbane in 1982. On each occasion he has been in medalwinning fours, but never the gold medal. Dickison had a sound, if not spectacular national tournament, but his selection has been obvious since his big double last year of the New Zealand and Australian Games singles titles. Dickison has already been named as New Zealand’s representative at the Gateway Masters singles tournament in England in May, a golden opportunity for him to get experience on British greens. Nevertheless the exclusion of Dickison from the South Island team is a little hard to fathom. It could only have been done on the grounds that it allowed another player to receive a Games trial., .//i

Taranaki’s- Maurice Symes has been the favourite for some time to be the Games pairs skip. Re had a very good year, test year, winning the national pairs, the Pacific Games

pairs at Tweed Heads and he was not out of his class when he partnered Dickison and the professionals, Peter Beiliss and Rowan Brassey, in the New Zealand team which won the two-test series against Ireland at Dunedin in December.

Since then Symes has had no major wins, but in the absence of a really strong rival he must still be a warm favourite to have charge of the New Zealand pair at Edinburgh.

But who will be his lead, and who are the three men Moffat will have in front of him? These are the questions that must be resolved in the next three weeks, and the North-South game will be the clincher. The selection of John Murtagh in the North Island team could be important. Murtagh, to many minds, has played too often for money to be ranked as an amateur, but an amateur he apparently is, albeit one, like Moffat, with a trust account On the score of experience alone, Murtagh must be a strong contender. Wayne Nairn, the bright young prospect from Papakura, was widely tipped to be one of the leads before the Dominion tournament, but he never really surfaced at Christchurch and. must now be borderline.

In his favour Nairn does have the big back swing that could be very handy on the slower greens of Scotland. •

Stewart .McConnell (Dunedin) could be preferred to Nairn if a more experienced lead is wanted, although McConnell’s close-to-the-ground shovel delivery might be ill-suited to the conditions.

Keith Slight, from Wanganui, is a distinct chance for the front half of the four. It is difficult to say whether he harmed or improved his chances by not attending the national tournament, but he is a quality bowler who is about ready for international selection.

Perhaps the biggest problem the selectors have is finding a third for Moffat. Terry Scott (Dunedin) has been the popular choice for some time; in fact since ne skipped the New Zealand four to victory at the Pacific Games.

The challengers to Scott, who, to some minds, gets beaten too often to be rated too highly, are Bill Kane (Southland), whose consistency can hardly be ignored, and the Canterbury pair, Graham Stanley and Ken Watson. Stanley and Watson have the added advantage of having previously played with Moffat, although Stanley’s best chance may lie at No. 2 in the four. It would appear to be the position to which he is best suited and his fighting qualities would be an asset to any team. . Stanley and Watson, along with a number of the other candidates, will have the. finals of the Rothmans inter-centre tournaSpnt in Christchurch at the end of next

week to press further their claims, but the North-South match is clearly the one that is going to determine the Games team. If their form is good enough it is not impos-

sible that both Stahley and Watson could join Moffat and give Canterbury an unprecedented three members of a Games bowls team. The pair are certainly knocking hard.