BOWLS

Northland Age, Volume XVI, Issue 23, 17 December 1946, Page 3

BOWLS

KAITAIA WINS NORTH AUCKLAND BOWLING CENTRE'S CHALLENGE SHIELD Only four teams, Whangarei, Kensington. Hikurangi and Kaitaia, competed in the Chanxponship Fours of the North Auckland Bowling Centre’s tournament held on the Kaitaia Bowling Club’s greens on Saturday. Under the able leadership of H. N. Freeman, Kaitaia won the handsome Shield for the first time from M. Whitelaw’s Whangarei quartet in the final after a closely contested game full of incident from stax-t to finish. Each member of the successful team fully justified his selection and eonsiderng that the opposition contained some of the best bowlers in Northland, Kaitaia have every i-eason to feel proud of their efforts. Freeman and Hammond were in fine form and on Satui-day’s form would most certainly hold their own in any company in New Zealand. Hanlon’s leading was rather a mixture, but considering that he has been playing regularly as a skip for some time, he did well and usually came into his own when most needed. Cowie was steady and accurate throughout. The greens were in good order though a side wind on occasions made one hand somewhat tricky. The visitors were particularly pleased with the smooth running surface, expressing only disappointment at the lack of from the Middle North. The Kaikohe sports, it is thought, may have been the counter attraction.

Kaitaia played Hikui-angi in the opening game and won comfortably on the 19th end by 35 points to 7. The Hikurangi players were D. Cochrane, J. Frew, J. Connell and J. Speirs (skip). This team later played Kensington for the Wooden Spoon and won easily by 29 points to 9. The Whangarei team, M. Erceg, R. James, J. H. Marwick and M. Whitelaw (skip) met Kensington represented by J. Oliver, H. Webb, R. Boag and J. Nesbit (skip) and after establishing a good lead, they were 20 points to 8 on the 13th but won only on the last head by 22 points to 20. The Final In the final Kaitaia started disastrously against Whangarei, going down five on the first head. Freeman retrieved the position on the second by playing a pei-fect yard on shot to push Whitelaw’s shot bowl faxenough to gather thi-ee. With their backs to the wall, Kaitaia ti-ailed Whangax-ei when at luncheon on the 7th end the score board read 9-6 in the visitors’ favour. Whitelaw scored on resuming, then Freeman scored one in the next three ends. The 12th head saw Freeman score 3 with a running shot that had all the elements of good fortune, hitting a front ball which did the rest. The morale factor of this “break” appeared to wori-y the opposition and they failed to score again until the 17th with the score 17-11 ; then they gathered two and improved their position by adding three more on the next head to bring them only two behind —18 -16. The 19th was hardfought with each player alternating

by securing the shot ; Whitelaw used a swinging drive to run Hammond’s toucher off but Freeman responded with a perfect draw. The 20th was marked by splendid bowls with the iKaitaia team steady and accurate all round, Freeman drawing a beauty with his last, but Whitelaw again demonstrated his skill with a stinging drive to kill the head. The replay saw Hammond score -two lucky shots, both running narrow only to wick on to kitty, but Marwick drove them off ; again Freeman came to light to scoi-e a valuable 1_ Whitelaw needed four to tie and five to win on the final end, but Fi-ee-man played safe and the result was a measure for shot, Whitelaw failing

for once with a clean miss in attempting to burn the head —and Kaitaia had won. 't The draw for the aftei-noon resulted in : F. Puckey, H. Crene, H. Mclntosh, R. Lewis (skip) defeated A. Rae, D. Boreham, J. Colebrook, G. Surman, (skip), 17-11. J. Mon-ison, J. Steen, W. Atkins, W. Parker (skip) defeated Pribicevich, A. W. Masters, T. Hales, T. Joll (skip), 18-15. W. Steed, J. Pearson, A. Fittall, T. Kunicich (skip) defeated C. Watson, F. Cave, L. Pettit, B. Wright (skip), 17-3. 11. Carr, N. Masters, N. Boyd, R.

Ryan (skip) defeated M. Long, H. Harrington, J. Crosby, R. Durney (skip), 20-12. Osbaldiston, Yendell, Ai-chibald (skip) tied with A. B. McDonald, E. Kendrick, Fields (skip), 17 all. The Kaitaia Bowling Club flew their flag at half mast throughout the day as a mark of respect to their late Vice-President, Mr. W. Marsh, and members observed two minutes’ sileffee during the tea adjournment.