Update 5^th November  2014.

Comment on Bowls   by Denis Duffy.

A severely wind-blown opening day of Interclub certainly blew away the assumption by this pundit that Northern were obvious favourites to take the Women’s title. Congratulations to the Terrace End side that won every match to take out the competition with plenty to spare. The team that nailed down the first available spot in the Regional finals in Gisborne has already been named in the press, but a victory as comprehensive as this one justifies their repetition. The successful players were Mere Fryer, Georgie Kahui-Rogers, Bev Budd, Sheryn Blake, Ailsa Lindsay, Christina Bryan and Lynlea Rogers. The Men’s competition remains wide open. With two rounds to play, Palmerston North 1 leads by a single point from Terrace End and Northern. Day 2 will be intense, with every chance that the smallest of margins will decide the ultimate outcome. The Horgan/Gilshnan Pair proved again how vital they are to the hopes of leaders Palmerston North 1 by going through the first three rounds unbeaten on a day where honours were relatively evenly divided.

The Bowls Manawatu candidate nominated for this weekend’s Sport Manawatu awards in the Administrator of the Year category didn’t make the finals cut, but was a very worthy nomination. Current Centre Manager Vern Sixtus has clocked up a lifetime’s worth of service to the sport, mainly under the now discarded title of Secretary. Since first joining the Manawatu Centre executive in the early 1980’s, Vern has served in every imaginable capacity, including a two year term as President in the early 1990’s. He retired in 2004, but was persuaded to return when Phil Skoglund revisited the Presidential chair. Today Vern continues to be the ‘go-to man’ for every aspect of the Centre’s activities and especially when there’s a problem to sort out. In a previous life, Vern also clocked up nineteen consecutive years as Secretary of the Takaro club. He is a colossus in the local administration of the sport.

Hours of meticulous research went into the preparation of Vern’s record as an Administrator of the Year candidate, and most of this was performed by another true stalwart in Stan Goston. Stan revealed that he still possesses copies of the Centre Handbook dating back to before 1980, and this was the crucial resource used in checking out Vern’s extensive background in Bowls. Stan is the current Patron of the Terrace End club, where he is a long serving player and administrator.  He’s a diehard Cantabrian at heart, and he continues to oversee the ever popular Skoglund Triples weekly competition, together with former National president Keith McMurtrie.

A great night was had by all who turned up at the Palmerston North clubrooms for a very successful indoors ‘Race Meeting’ which raised a sizeable part of the funds required to send Manawatu teams to the National Inter-Centre event in Christchurch later in the season.

    

 

Thanks Denis.