Thirteen Years Ago.
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Men’s sevens were postponed as Christchurch reeled from a series of earthquakes on Friday. A decision as to when these games will be replayed was to be made in early January. Although nobody would have been happy about the earthquakes it is probable that some delight would have expressed that Christmas eve competition bowls would have been cancelled. While one can understand wanting to get the competition over before the new year and not disturb competitions in January the decision to play on Christmas eve had to be questioned.
The thoughts of all the St. Albans-Merivale Bowling Club went out to all those who have been effected by these.
There have been many of these at Donald Place over the years. Some are mentioned here.
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28 players, which included several visitors, played in the new year tournament.
1] Kate Gregory & Alex McAllister
2] Mick Tarling & Hillary Orr
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A tournament was held with 36 bowlers participating. A nice fine day and a good start for the new year.
The winning team was Eleanor Sweeney, Alex McAllister and Morton Smith.
Special thanks to Sandy Stokes and Lois Brown who organized the tournament and supplied the prizes. There was a really good crowd of bowlers, 36 players, for the New Year’s Day Tournament. There were visitors and bowlers from Parklands, Belfast and Elmwood. All in all it was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Thank you to Lois and Sandy for their great organizing and sponsorship.
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A new year’s day “tournament” took place with 24 members turning up to the Sandy Stokes and Lois Brown organized event.
Traditional three bowl pairs were played.
It was a most enjoyable day made more pleasant by the warm weather.
Thanks to Sandy and Lois for their efforts.
Winners: Allan Reid and Stan Bage
Second: Alex McAllister and John Pickering.
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Five Years Ago.
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Sponsored by Dave Findlay of Ray White.
The traditional New Years Day tournament was held in very hot conditions with temperatures in the high 20s.
24 members participated, 6 fours teams. Two games were played and teams changed each game. [Aggregate system.]
Special thanks to Bernadette O’Malley for organizing the event and John Pickering for his donations of wine.
First: Janet Hall
Second: Hilary Orr
Third: Russell Hunter
Fourth: Diana Dryland
This New Years Day tournament proved popular. Could this be a consideration for Elmwood Park in the future?
Six Years Ago.
2017 – 18 Nationals.
Congratulations to Bev Morel and Sherrie Cottle and Theresa Woodham and Joyce McKinnel who 
qualified for pairs post section play held on January 3.
What a day for Bev and Sherrie, they got through to the semi finals to be played 0n January 6 where their opponents will be the well-performed pair of Katelyn Inch and Tayla Bruce.
Well done to Paul McKinnel who reached the post section of the pairs. Paul continued in post section and won all four games and reached the quarter finals. One of his wins was against Richard Girvan, a former Black Jack.
Well done also to Sherrie Cottle who has reached the singles post section where sadly she was defeated by Selina Goddard 12 – 21.
Paul McKinnel and Bev Morel each won one game in the fours section and both needed to win all their games on Tuesday. In both sections they had to face one very strong team, Shaun Scott and Mandy Boyd. It was a big ask!
A bridge too far for the Bev Morel team as they went down to Mandy Boyd 6 – 23. Not so for the Paul McKinnel skipped composite team which won all three games including a close win over Shaun Scott, 20 – 18. Congratulations. On finals day if he w0n he would have been well be on track to meet Ali Forsyth and Gary Lawson. They won their first game but were defeated by the Forsyth four 12 – 20.
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A dozen members turned up for the year’s final roll up which took place in sweltering heat, so much so that an emergency phone call went out for a barman so the members could get out of the heat and head into the bar. Blessed relief.
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The Nationals:
January 2 – 8 saw the NZ bowling nationals singles and pairs championships played around Christchurch greens. Elmwood Park was as expected well represented and many had success.
Imagine the surprise MuzzaWeb received when checking up the BNZ web results to discover that Pam Phair and Tania Woodham had won their game against Wendy Mackie 154 – 1, 3 wins, 0 losses and a differential of 180. The actual score was 15 – 14. At least all the digits were correct. [Score was corrected the following day.] MuzzaWeb’s other interesting result was Rodney Greaney’s defeat of Blackjack Ali Forsyth 21 – 2. Impressive.
Singles qualifiers: Gary Lawson Chris Kibblewhite Tania Woodham Mandy Boyd
Pairs qualifiers: Chris Kibblewhite & Fiona Frew Bev Morel & Sherrie Cottle Mandy Boyd & Angela Boyd Pam Phair & Tania Woodham Jan Shirley & Kelly McKerihen Nathan Glasson & Jordan King Ali Forsythe & Gary Lawson
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The women’s singles quarter-finalists have been found at the Summerset Nationals in Auckland after four frantic rounds of post-section play saw past champions fall by the wayside. Wet weather on Saturday meant all 120 entrants started the knock-out rounds on Sunday morning and by 7pm only eight players were left in the draw, our Mandy Boyd being one who continued on only to be narrowly beaten in the final by Nicole Toomey.
Congratulations Lance.
Lance Pascoe and Jamie Hill have completed a perfect run through the men’s pairs at the Summerset Nationals in Auckland. The composite combination have beaten the experienced Mike Bradshaw and John Carruthers (Royal Oak) 19-6 in the final at Carlton Cornwall, having won all eight of their previous games over the four days of competition.After a number of near misses it was Pascoe’s first national title.
“It’s good to get the monkey off the back. I’ve been in a few semis and a final so I’m rapt,” Pascoe said.
Pascoe paid tribute to his lead Hill, who got the better of him in the final of the national fours in Mt Maunganui last year.
In today’s qualifying games in the women’s pairs, Mandy and Angela Boyd had three wins.
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Major interest over the holidays, Jan. 2 – 9, was the hotly contested Summerset National singles and pairs which have started and Elmwood Park has several members competing.
Section play: 2/1 3/1
Singles: B. Morel W L (20 – 21) W L W ( def T. Bruce ) W M. Boyd W W W W W DNP
Pairs: L. Pascoe L W L W W W K. Scott W W W W W W G. Lawson [Under Mt. Albert B.C. colours] W W W W DNP W
What a two days! Everyone has reached post section. Now the hard work begins. Cutthroat now, no second chances. Good luck.
Post Section; 4/1 5/1
| Pairs: Round of: | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | QF | SF | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G. Lawson T. Grantham | W | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| K. Scott S. McIlroy | W | W | L | ||||
| L. Pascoe J. Hill | W | W | W | W | W | L | |
| M. Boyd | W | L | |||||
| B. Morel | W | L | |||||
| Singles: Round of | 64 | 32 | 16 | QF | SF | F |
Congratulations Gary.
A champion in action.
To conclude the day Gary Lawson closed out a remarkable 15th national title, 16 in total, pairing up with Blackjack Tony Grantham to win the men’s pairs. Lawson, who has endured some controversial headlines in recent months, proved yet again to be a class above, capitalising on the solid platform provided by Grantham and putting former New Zealand pairs champion Ray Martin to the sword in the finishing stages of the final, winning 19-8.
Now, all attention turns to the men’s singles, women’s pairs and open disability pairs with two days of qualifying getting underway on Friday.
