Update 29^th October  2013.

Congratulations to Doug Hayward and Ann Corlett who defeated Liz and Terry Rossiter in the  final of the Centre mixed 2-4-2 pairs on Monday.  J

Good Bowling to those Northern players who are taking part in the first day of Interclub on Saturday and the Club Singles championships on Sunday. The long range weather for the weekend looks a little suspect but how often do they get it right? Here's hoping, not this time!

Bowling On

29^th October.

Bowls Manawatu Division One Interclub commences on Saturday and a unique change is the joint competition with Wanganui Clubs.

Each Centre will still provide a representative club to go onto regional and perhaps National finals and in theory one of the Centres could grant that privilege to a club finishing fifth overall although unlikely.

Manawatu will be represented by Palmerston North, Northern and Terrace End in both gender competitions while Johnston Park and Takaro will be the fourth team in the women's and men's competitions respectively. Wanganui and Wanganui East will be in both competitions for the Wanganui Centre and the highly ranked Aramaho and Durie Hill are the other two men's clubs. Laird Park and Marton complete the four clubs in the women's competitions.

What the change will do is remove a lot of the predictability with travel, different greens and unknown opponents being considerations for all players and how they cope on day one may dictate the outcome.

Wanganui teams are not known to me but at Centre level our representative players often struggle to compete and I expect they will be very competitive all round. Northern women will be without Feona Sayles, Chris Quinn and Sharon Sims but it's side still looks well balanced and exemplifies the club's depth. I like the look of Terrace End's women's team while Johnston Park is newly promoted to Division One but will feel the loss of their two best players Robyn Schischka and Lyn Jensen who are both unavailable.

 At the risk of being ageist Palmerston North women look just a little too seasoned to foot it - I await the howls of protest.

Northern also have several changes in the men's seven with Philip Sloglund Jnr, Craig Gush, Cameron Nairne, Grant Simms and Ray Lovie all gone from the club or unavailable. Palmerston North have lost singles exponent Ross Ellery but lose nothing in replacement Chris Barrett while Pat Horgan will skip a four with two new faces in Clayton Simpson who has transferred from Terrace End and Dean Gilshnan who came of age last season.  Brian Little skips Graeme Cooley in the pair and I expect they will be a formidable combination.

Takaro and Terrace End will be competitive with the mens sevens they have named but I question some of the playing order particularly the Takaro four which has an upside down look about it.

Men's Division two is back in numbers with eight teams and Johnston Park and Palmerston North have two entries each. It is usually a matter of which of the Palmerston North teams wins this grade.

Most divisions play two rounds on day one then three rounds on subsequent days which I find thoughtless and totally illogical. If you lose time in a competition it needs to be made up and common sense says if you lose the time later on you can't return to day one to make it up! Play three rounds a day from the start is the only sensible approach.

Manawatu Division One teams are (singles players are shown first followed by pairs skip, lead, fours skip etc): Women, Palmerston North, Robyn McGregor, Pat Cohr, Joan Ware, Ngaire Cowen, Nancy Meads, Marilyn Free, Jewell Griggs; Johnston Park Ann Corlett, Gillian Friis, Christina Bryan, Tina Vartha, Lois Tyler, Tania McKay, Maureen Coffey; Northern, Mere Fryer, Liz Rossiter, Noeleen Elston, Sue Meyer, Anna Davis, Juilanne Mills, Janeen Noble: Terrace End, Patricia Hansen, Bev Budd, Georgie Kahui-Rogers, Sheryn Blake, Hine Bennett-Davies, Ailsa Lindsay, Sharon Groves; Men, Palmerston North, Chris Barrett, Brian Little, Graeme Cooley, Pat Horgan, Steve Toms, Clayton Simpson, Dean Gilshnan: Northern, Terry Johnson, Mark Noble, Neil Gordon, Grant Davis, Adam Johnston, Rhys Hakkens, Bruce Harris; Terrace End, Brian Looker, Shane Rogers, Graeme Gosnell, Dave Newell, Barry Evans, Scruff Anderson, Mike Hodge; Takaro, Terry Rossiter, Barry Wynks, Don Sones, Clark Norris, Kevin Bryan, Ian Johnson. Terry Curtis.

• In a thrilling finish Doug Hayward and Ann Corlett (Northern) beat the husband and wife combination of Liz and Terry Rossiter in the final of the Centre mixed 2-4-2 pairs at Northern on Monday. The score was 12-12 going into the last end and Corlett immediately plonked a bowl right on the jack and it stayed there. All of those characters are in the "Good Guys" category and all a little unheralded as well.

• The Centre is still to set a date to play the carried over final of the Open singles which will be between the crusty old Palmerston North bowler Brian Henn and the highly rated Mark Noble. There is some disquiet among bowlers after the final was carried over after a Monday was set down for the tournament. Several top bowlers did not enter because of work commitments and were bemused to see such a change can be made on a whim.

• Good Bowling

Tony Jensen

Thanks Tony