Update 26^th  October 2012.

Northern Women’s Division A InterClub Team chosen as a finalist in the Manawatu Sports Person of the Year Awards.

We have just been advised that the Northern Women’s Division A InterClub Team has been chosen as a finalist in the Manawatu Sports Person of the Year Awards, to be held on Friday the 9^th of November. In the Sports Team of the Year.

You are all welcome to attend.  If you are interested in attending the function and supporting our team, can you let Chris Quinn know by next Friday 2^nd of November by email at christine.quinn@pncc.govt.nz or give her a ring.

Chris will arrange for tickets so Northern people can all be together.  Tickets are $60 each and the tables seat eight people.

Details:

The awards evening will be on Friday 9 November.

Venue: Silks Lounge, Awapuni Function Centre (Racecourse Road, Palmerston North)

Time:    Doors open 6pm. (Enjoy some pre dinner drinks with the awards commencing at approximately 7pm)

Dress:   Formal (Jacket and Tie)

MC:      Scotty Stevenson

Congratulations Girls!

Update 24^th  October 2012.

Target Bowls.

Just a reminder to you all that Target Bowls which got off to such a good start will be running every Friday evening from now on until just before Christmas. If there is on-going interest and support we will have another series in the New Year. You can participate at any time between 4:30 and 6:30pm. It takes about 40 minutes to complete the 8 rinks and we will pair you up with someone if you are on your own. $5 entry for each round, with 50% of the pool paid out to the winner and 30% for second. The remaining 20% will be kept towards major prizes at the end of the competition. A cumulative record of weekly scores will be kept to determine these winners. From time to time we will have lucky number draws for those participating. There will be good prizes for these draws but you will have to be in attendance if your name is drawn. You are more than welcome to bring a non bowling friend (or two) to take part, and they will become part of the on-going totals if they attend more than once. If we have a large number of non bowlers participating on any particular night (e.g. a corporate social club) then we will run a separate competition for them.

There are two other exciting bowling competitions about to begin and we would like your support in spreading the word about these and helping us recruit participants.

Corner to Corner (sponsored by Grants Whisky)

For the first time in the Manawatu our club will be running this nationwide event which carries a NZ title and promises to be a lot of fun. This is open to all bowlers and we are hoping for a strong participation from Northern members. This weekly competition is to be run on Monday evenings beginning on November 05 and running for 6 consecutive weeks. Further information is to follow – please check e-mails and information to be posted at the club.

Mates in Bowls

We begin our 4^th year of MIB on Wednesday November 7^th. The success of MIB relies on the number of teams that are entered. We need your help to get information and sign up forms to people who you think would like to play and could get a team of three together. Information and sign up sheets are on the long table in front of the main notice-board. Who do you know that might like to give bowls a go – workmates, family, neighbours, friends. Please help us make this another successful MIB season for both the participants and our club by encouraging teams to enter.

Contact President Chris or any Executive member for further information.

Centre Open Mixed 2x4x2

Labour weekend saw the first of the Centre competitions with the Open Mixed 2x4x2 being played on our greens.

The weather on Saturday was pretty good but it went downhill from there.

The Final  between Barry Wynks and Sharon Sims was not played on Monday due to the conditions and will be played at some other time yet to be decided.

Below are a couple of pics from the event.

Update 15^th  October 2012.

Tony Jensen’s - Bowling On 15^th  October 2012.

Some columns are easy to write and virtually write themselves but it is with a heavy heart I pen this report.

The reason for such angst is the sudden and untimely passing of a good friend and bowls stalwart Bob Williams. Bob loved his sport having been a better than average cricketer and took to the game of bowls like the proverbial duck to water when he took it up about 25 years ago. Bob achieved his fifth Manawatu Centre title to achieve the coveted gold star when he won the champion of champion pairs leading for Chris Barrett last season.

A regular rep player through the years Bob never gave an inch on the green and was never beaten till it was all over. He was a versatile player, one of the few who could comfortably fill any of the positions in a team game. It was not only as a player that Bob excelled, he was a most able administrator and served as president of his Palmerston North Club.

He had a vision for the future of the sport and we often discussed his frustration that the Club Palmerston amalgamation had not properly come to fruition as originally envisioned. Bob often forwarded me news snippets for this column and as a professional news hound was always on the lookout for a story. In recent years Bob had shared employment between the Rugby Museum and publicity responsibilities for the Manawatu District Council. On learning of his passing workmates at the Council decorated his workstation with a lawn bowl and the colours of his beloved Taranaki. Let us not forget that Bob was first and foremost a family man and it was while he was mowing lawns for daughter Megan that Bob suffered the turn that took him from us. Our thoughts are with wife Kay and children Megan and Matt. We will all miss him dearly.

• I played the inaugural Rescue Helicopter tournament at Palmerston North last Sunday and it was a top day of competitive bowls but the real joy was watching approximately $4000 being raised for such a worthy cause. For the record the winning team was Kevin Suisted's team of Mere Fryer, Julie-anne Mills and Derek McKee. In second place was Lindsay Toms, Paul Rowe, Alan Morley and Dean Gilshnan. It was very appropriate Paul was part of it as he was the architect of the tournament and worked tirelessly on sponsorship. Other four winners were Terry Rossiter, Terry Curtis, John Osborne and Laurie Gordon in third place.

• Labour Weekend sees the commencement of the Centre's season with the Spec Savers 2-4-2 mixed pairs being contested at Northern. A very pleasing 42 teams have entered, up from 26 last season. Leading the field are two ex World champions in Peter Belliss from Aramaho and Sharon Sims. Sharon won the title last season and will again partner Mark Noble. Belliss plays with uncommonly promising junior Sophie Fisher and they don't look to have a daunting draw. The same is true for Sims and Noble but the Rogers husband and wife combination of Shane and Georgie face top combinations right through. They will meet both Phil and Phillip Skoglund and  Feona Sayles. Only eight teams will qualify for post section and in theory a team could win all six games and not qualify. I don't expect that will happen but there could well be disappointed 5 winners. The advantage is it will be cut throat till the end.

• After Saturday's qualifying Peter Belliss will give an address on life in bowls and all are welcome. Play is expected to finish about 4-45pm and a gold coin donation bar-b-que will precede Peter's address which should commence by 5-30pm. I will be sorry to miss his address, he remains a great sportsman.

• I ask clubs to email me their Division One Interclub teams during this week so I can preview the event. Email news to tony.jensen@aon.co.nz.

Tony Jensen

Thanks Tony.

BOWLS MANAWATU
SPECSAVERS OPEN MIXED 2x4x2 PAIRS
20^th 21^st,22^nd OCTOBER

Click on the image to read!

Update 12^th October 2012.

For those of you who couldn’t make it here are a couple of moments from last evenings Civic Honour Awards Ceremony.

(N.B. Click on the items for a larger display.)

Update 2^nd October 2012.

Winners!

Congratulations to John Procter and Ross O’Brien Winners of last Saturday’s Infracon any gender Handicap Pairs.

Congratulations to Anne Corlett, Tania Harris and Pat Baker Winners of last Sunday’s Judy Bailey Ladies Trophy (Triples).

Both Tania and Ross are new members of the Club so have made a good start to their Northern journey. Well done Tania and Ross and welcome to Northern.

This coming Weekend  6^th and 7^th October.

Nothing on Saturday.

Johnson Park have their big 4’s tournament on if you want to go and watch some good bowls.

Sunday the 7^th there will be an In House Club roll Up.

1pm start with names in by 11:30am.

Palmerston North has a fundraising tournament for the Rescue Helicopter.

For you Petrol Heads out there, The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 will celebrate 50 years of Racing with their big race on Sunday. Go the V8's!

Tony Jensen’s - Bowling on 2^nd October 2012.

No figure in sport is maligned more than a Bowls greenkeeper so it was great to see the doyen of Manawatu greenkeepers Ray Hazelwood receive National recognition by being runner-up at the recent Bowls New Zealand awards.

Ray has been looking after the Bulls greens since forever and long time member Bruce Robertson tells me Ray calls the shots and his word is gospel. If Ray says "no play today" only the brave and the foolish argue.

A greenkeepers day might go something like this:

- First there and a quiet walk over the entire surface to see what gremlin may have presented overnight.

- A decision follows "shall I mow, roll or perhaps tend those ditches they were all growling about"

-And the club cat needs feeding!

A handy bowler in his own right Ray is now over 80 but not ready for retirement yet. When it's all over of course the "leaner mob" will help Ray out by telling him what he's done wrong. Greenkeepers can never win but in this case runner-up is a top result for one of the gentlemen of the game.

While on the awards I noted there were four finalists for Player of the Year and remarkably all were women. Seems extraordinary that with two men to one woman playing the game they can't get one in the first four. That is not to take anything away from Jo Edwards (ultimate winner), Mandy Boyd, Sandra Keith and Val Smith all topliners and deserved nominees. In every decade we have had a male bowler who strode the greens like a colossus but that character seems lacking at present. Names like our own Phil Skoglund, Peter Belliss, Rowan Brassey and Gary Lawson have filled the role over the last 40 years but there seems to be a void currently.

• Next Sunday Palmerston North Bowling Club will hold the first of what they hope will be annual fundraising tournament in support of the Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter. Paul Rowe is the instigator of the tournament and he has his own life thanks to the very service. When he had a heart attack in 2008 it was the Helicopter that got him to Wellington Hospital. The tournament is Any Gender fours (mufti) so make sure you get a team togerher and enter.

With this fundraiser in the early season and Northern's Hospice tournament in March they bookend the season well and should both be occasions where club allegiances are discarded.

Speaking of the Hospice tournament, long time organiser Barry Gush is to be recognised by the City with a Civic Award on 11th of October at the Convention Centre. In his time he has raised (with a lot of help) $100000 for the Hospice. A most deserved honour.

• Don't forget entries close for the Centre 2-4-2 Mixed Pairs on 8 October 2012 so get your entry away. I'll see you all at Palmerston North on Sunday.

Tony Jensen

Thanks Tony.