Last Sunday saw the qualifying rounds for the Bowls North Harbour 1-5 interclub.  This was scheduled for the Saturday but the weather had a major effect with play on Saturday cancelled.

Sunday dawned a better day but was interrupted by some light showers and the wind became gusty and cooler as the day progressed.  The greens were damp and played slower than normal.  Section play was at Takapuna, Milford and Browns Bay.

Mairangi Bay had two teams entered, the Orcas who were at Browns Bay and the Marlins who were at Milford.

Below is the report from the Marlins team manager Ron Horne.
Mairangi Bay Marlins were represented on Sunday 21st at Milford Bowling Club by Stuart McKay playing singles, Bill Lowe and Ralph Cullen playing pairs, Flora McDonald, Jane McKay and Annie McGrath playing triples.

After a 30 minute rain delay play started at 9am. The other teams in the section were Browns Bay, Helensville and Birkenhead. It was a tough draw as Helensville and Birkenhead were very strong containing a number of 1-5 Harbour reps. Both eventually qualified for the Post Section playoffs next weekend.

Although not a successful day everyone played excellent bowls and had two wins and a draw during the day. Bill and Ralph won their pairs against Browns Bay, lost to Helensville then had an exciting game against Birkenhead. Holding two on the last end but Birkenhead holding three, Bill played a great run shot to take out the two shot bowls, moved the jack and after a very long measure, missed out on the win but Birkenhead were still holding two – it was a draw.

Our other win was in the triples where Flora’s team beat the strong Helensville team handsomely.

Stuart had a real tough battle on his hands in the singles. He came from 19-6 down to 19-17 against Browns Bay winning 7 ends in a row but just missed out. His other two singles games were against current 1-5  Harbour Reps and it was a bridge too far.

It was a tough section however everyone were excellent representatives of the club and played some excellent bowls during the day.

Below is the report from the Orcas team manager Alan Daniels.
The Mairangi Bay Orcas team was: singles Glenda Rountree, pairs Michael Thomas and Graeme McGregor, triples Roger Potter, Julie Chhour and Rosemary Nicol.

As with the Marlins, the Orcas also faced a couple of top teams.  They played Orewa in the first round and collected two wins.

The pairs were always in control winning 19-9 and the triples started well, lost their way in the middle and were down by 7 but surged home to win 16-13.

Glenda started well in her singles against Kerry Greenhalgh but Kerry found his range, going on to win 21-11.

Round 2 they played Browns Bay, the eventual winners of the section.
Glenda played Gideon den Hertog, who bowled amazing bowls and Glenda was just slightly off and also had no luck. Gideon won 21-2.

The pairs had another strong win 15-6. It was down to the triples for the team win. Again they started strong with Rosemary and Julie bowling well, again they lost their way and were down 11-10 with one end to play. They were holding two for the win but the Browns Bay skip, Craig Lane came in with a run shot with his last bowl hitting the front bowls and moving the jack back to take a three and the win.

Round 3 was against Hobsonville, another strong side.
Unfortunately they lost all three disciplines, Glenda lost to another very good singles, player Clinton Smith 5-21.

The pairs lost 8-18 and the triples lost 7-15.

Not a good way to finish the day, the team needed three wins against Hobby to have a chance as the next best qualifier. Hobsonville ended up taking that spot.

Well done to our team, they tried hard but ran into some better teams on the day.

 

Many thanks to our two managers and also our supporters, Jan Gledhill, Noelene Culpan, Kerin Roberts, Murray Radojkovich, Colleen Rice, Barry McCrystal, David Payne, John Gledhill, Phil Chisholm, Tony Popplewell, Gaye Horne and Joy Watkinson.

Next Sunday the top eight teams will play finals at Browns Bay to determine the North Harbour champion who will represent North Harbour in the Mercedes cup in May.

 

Report by Alan Daniels and Ron Horne