1-5 YEAR: Saturday 30 September
After running trials and training sessions plus watching the recent Centre 1-5 Triples, the Auckland Management Team fielded an ardent team of in-form players.
The Men’s side started strongly with three wins from three against Northland, followed by another three from three against Bay of Plenty. A 2-1 victory against North Harbour sealed the victory, only dropping one game from the nine played.
The Women’s team, with a few new players, started with a 1-2 loss to Northland, improving with a 2-1 win over BOP, and finishing with an emphatic 3-0 victory over North Harbour to also win their section. Auckland won the Men’s and Women’s sections and the overall contests.
Head Selector Peter Blucher was elated with the performance, saying; “It was an all-round team victory! A result of good preparation of the players and the team coaches and managers collaborating with the teams through to victory.”
“Overall, I thought it was a well-run event and a great result, but I can see we’ll have a few headaches working out how to select just eight players for the Battle of the Bridge.” Not a bad headache to have!
PREMIER & PREMIER DEVELOPMENT: Sunday 1 October
On Sunday, the Auckland Premier and Premier Development teams travelled to North Harbour – the Men to Manly Bowling Club and the Women to Hobsonville Bowling Club, for their first rep competition for the 2023-2024 season.
With some of the top male players unavailable, we fielded youthful selections, for both teams.
Both sides came up a little short, but Selector Neville Hill was unfazed and expects an improvement in the next rep outing, the Battle of the Bridge in early December.
The best-performing Premier team was the Fours, skipped by Jordan King along with young guns David Motu and Liam Hill plus, evergreen Gavin Brown – they won all three games.
The Men’s Premier Development Fours team of Taiki Panani (S), Lee Warburton, Craig Harold and Vili Fifita won two out of three games.
In Hobsonville, the wind left the female players with the task of trying to find the green and weight.
Head Selector, Alison Rennie said, “We had a couple of last-minute player changes in the Women’s Premier Development team, a reshuffle allowed players to prove themselves in different positions. I was delighted to see how well the players adapted.”
“Linda Fenton excelled as our Singles player, winning two of her games and a very close-fought third game against her North Harbour opponent, who played Singles for Japan in the recent World Bowls championship in Australia.”
A change in the Fours team after the first game proved a winning combination.
Alison went on to say “We had a great outcome for our first outing. The Women’s Premier team kept in touch, coming second to Bay of Plenty, and our Premier Development team proved themselves by winning their division.”
Thank you Remuera and New Lynn for hosting on Saturday and thanks to Manly Bowling Club and Hobsonville Bowling Club for hosting on Sunday.
Well done everyone, and we look forward to the next challenge.
Here are the overall results:
| Premier | PTS | Net shots |
| Northland | 31 | 19 |
| Auckland | 28 | -2 |
| Bay of Plenty | 24 | 11 |
| North Harbour | 24 | -28 |
|
Premier Development |
PTS | Net shots |
| North Harbour | 34 | 50 |
| Northland | 27 | -22 |
| Auckland | 25 | 33 |
| Bay of Plenty | 21 | -61 |
|
1-5 Year |
PTS | Net shots |
| Auckland | 34 | 166 |
| Bay of Plenty | 21 | -96 |
| North Harbour | 19 | -24 |
| Northland | 10 | -24 |
