Our Ladies Team of Sheryl Wellington , Jan Gledhill, Colleen Rice & Theresa Rogers in the Fours, Irene Donaldson & Gaye Horne (Pairs) and Elaine McClintock (Singles) won the BNH Sevens Interclub title at the weekend.
Below is a report from Lindsay Knight
Mairangi Bay and Takapuna will represent North Harbour at next month’s national sevens inter-club playoffs, to be played in the Auckland region, though for the latter it will be a little different from what has been the regular practice in recent seasons.
For rather than its highly successful women’s players, Takapuna will be flying the Harbour flag in the men’s national play-off.
In the weekend’s final rounds of the Bowls North Harbour Centre’s Interclub 7’s competition, Mairangi Bay upstaged Takapuna in the women’s championship, deservedly winning the final at Browns Bay two games to one. In the singles Elaine McClintock repeated her Centre championship success over Black Jack Selina Goddard with a 21-15 win to remove what has been one of the main cogs in Takapuna’s successes over the past three seasons. With her singles expertise, and high rate of wins, Selina has almost invariably assured Takapuna of one win of the two usually needed. But as was the case in the Centre championship Elaine’s experience and consistency proved too much, a reminder, if one was needed, that she, too, is an accomplished singles player and as recently as 2015 a national finalist in this discipline.
In the pairs Wendy Jensen and Lauren Mills gave Takapuna its only win in the final, over a brave Gaye Horne and Irene Donaldson, but Mairangi Bay’s clincher came in the fours.
Sheryl Wellington, Jan Gledhill, Colleen Rice and Theresa Rogers were again steadiness personified in overcoming Lisa Dickson, Robyne Walker, Adele Ineson and Anne Dorreen. This, too, is strong combination, with Sheryl, Jan and Theresa all Centre gold stars and with Colleen the Centre’s fours champions this season.
Mairangi Bay was also without one of its best players, another Centre gold star holder in Kerin Roberts, who was unwell.
Mairangi Bay won its semifinal over an Orewa team which included the ageless Elizabeth Ring, while Takapuna beat Birkenhead, though not without some qualms. Connie Mathieson and Jamie Chen drew with Wendy and Lauren, and Selina had another singles battle with Millie Nathan.
Takapuna won the Men’s competition played over a nine-match round-robin, dropping only one of its matches against Birkenhead, who eventually finished runner-up. The result came down to Sunday’s final round, with Takapuna needing a 2-1 win against Milford and Birkenhead a virtual clean sweep against Mairangi Bay should Takapuna stumble against the bottom placed Milford.
As it turned out, Birkenhead was held to a draw in the fours, but despite wins by singles player Daymon Pierson and in the pairs by Nigel Drew and Mark Rumble that proved to be academic.
Milford’s Charlie McDonald delivered a singles win and the young pair of Robbie McGrane and Hayden Wilkinson, the latter a third-year player, battled bravely in the pairs against Takapuna’s Jerry Belcher and Ian Hardy. But over the final stages Belcher and Hardy, with their greater experience, handled the pressure points well and that win, plus a comfortable win in the fours, secured Takapuna’s title.
Takapuna fielded a strong four in the final with Grant Keats skipping, Simon Poppleton at three, Raymond Skoglund at two and an impressive Dennis Hale leading. Skoglund replaced an unwell Bevan Smith in the final, with Smith’s combination with Hale a big factor in earlier wins over other top teams like Browns Bay. Takapuna also lacked singles specialist Brent Malcolm, his place being filled by Steve Hoeft.
Manly won a closely contested Division 2 men’s play-off at Birkenhead from Mairangi Bay, Takapuna and Browns Bay in that order.