Easter Fours bowls draws field of quality

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 19

Easter Fours bowls draws field of quality

After the flurry of tournaments over Easter, the Canterbury Bowling Centre’s season will be wrapped up with one massive tournament, which is named, quaintly enough, the Dominion Breweries Easter Fours. For some reason the Easter Fours has traditionally, at least in recent times, been delayed until after Easter. With more than 120 teams entered, the tournament will be played over four days. This Saturday and Sunday, all teams will play six qualifying games, with those gaining four to six wins going through to post-section play. There, teams will go into the sudden death format on Saturday, April 8, leading to the final on Sunday, April 9.

With the 10 sections

being of 12, or 14 teams, not all will be faced with consistently stern opposition. However, it will not be easy for most to qualify.

As befits the season’s final tournament, most of the big names of Canterbury provincial bowls will be present; many of them will be skipping their respective teams. Section one is perhaps the one most heavily populated with teams led by name players. There are at least six of the 14 teams which are well recognised as ones to be reckoned with. Names such as Jack Dale (Papanui), John Walker (Fendalton), Stewart Buttar (Burnside), John Saundercock (Linwood), Bruce McNish (Spreydon) and Travis Coup (Kaiapoi) are the

most notable. With several of them drawn to meet in their six matches, some will undoubtedly fall by the wayside. However, on the basis of consistency this season, McNish and Buttar are the two most likely to force their way through to post-section Play.

Two major names stand out in the second section. Neville Poole (Sumner) and Brian Barker (Papanui) have featured this summer, with Barker having the distinction of winning the national fours title and being runner-up in the provincial champion pairs. Sections three to five have between them four name teams. Mike Chick, Woolston Workingmen’s president, Graham McJarrow (Rakaia), Peter

Meier (South Brighton) and Bill Boyd (Papanui) have all distinguished themselves, with Meier having an enviable record, including 14 centre titles and a national fours title last season. In section six Graham Fyall (Fendalton), Peter Remi (Burnside) and Bill Fiecken (Beckenham) have been the most consistent, with Fiecken skipping his province’s fours team ably this season.

Section six has Pat Doig (Papanui), with Barker, the national fours title winner this season, Arnold Memory (Woolston W.M.C.) and Bob Cullen (Spreydon). The next section is notable for Lee Schafer (Redcliffs), a consistently tough competitor, and Malcolm McLeod (Cashmere).

The final two sections contain Tony Thomas (Woolston W.M.C.), Jack Brunton (Riccarton), the centre president, whose play, should it equal his communication skills, will be very much extemporaneous, and Terry Kennedy (Christchurch Richmond). Since there are certain to be many fine bowlers posing from lead to third as pretenders to their skips’ thrones, there will be teams that will come on strong when the mats are down. The promise in the tournament is that it will be more than just a culmination and, indeed, more like a climax to the season. It has the promise of being a tournament as intriguing in all its elements as any on the season’s calendar.