Counties 3 Five Center event.

A great weekend was had by all at the Bowls Counties Manukau Bowls3Five Centre event.

The event changed from last year’s mid-week evenings to a one weekend event which attracted great playing numbers and a good viewing crowd.

In the open event, twenty-two teams played seven rounds, five on the Saturday and a further two Sunday morning to find the eight qualifying teams for post section.

Three teams ended up on five wins – Jim Ballard (Buckland), Brody Dix (Papakura) and Mike Cavanagh (Pukekohe) and on four wins Carol Galloway (Buckland), Bryn Morgan (Papakura), Mike Hall, (Papakura), Don Ramsey and Shaun Pennell (Pukekohe).

In the quarter finals two Buckland teams played each other with Galloway coming out the winner in straight sets while in the other quarters Dix defeated Ramsey, Cavanagh beat Hall and Morgan beat Pennell, again all-in straight set wins. This set up two great semis with Brody Dix, Leeane Poulsen & Daniel Rajek playing Bryn Morgan, Cheryl Hunia & Frankie Lim and in the other semi - Mike Cavanagh, Adrienne Tilyard & Mike Wass played Carol Galloway, Stan Galloway and Andrew Johnson. The Galloway’s playing with bowling arms battled hard in the first set going down 4-3 but the Cavanagh team found their rhythm in the second set with a five in the first end and played their power play in the third to pick up a six and win 12-4.

In the other semi it followed a similar pattern with Morgan winning the first set 3-2. In the second set Brody Dix started well with a four in the second end but unfortunately could not capitalize on the advantage with Morgan picking up a two on their power play and a four on the fourth to eventually win 8-4. This saw Cavanagh (Pukekohe) play Morgan (Papakura) in the final.

As in most of the post section games it was a tight match with one set each and a tie breaker needed. Leading for Mike Cavanagh, Adrienne put both her bowls just behind the jack with her second only about an inch away. That bowl needed to be moved but for Bryn, Cheryl and Frankie they could not dislodge Adrienne’s bowl and it remained the shot bowl and Cavanagh, Tilyard & Wass took out the Bowls 3Five Centre title.

As the Centre champs they go on to play the Bowls North Harbour Centre champs in the first round of the national Bowls3five in the New Year.

1-5-year Bowls3five - Also being played on the Sunday was the 1-5-year Bowls3Five event, unfortunately only four teams contested to junior event which meant a one-day tournament of three round robin games, with the top two teams going through to a post section final which was played at the same time as the open final. Dave Burn, Shirley Hodge & Moi Purea from Papakura and Sheryl Brownlee, Kathy Lister & Will Riedel from Pukekohe ended up with two wins each. Brownlee won the first set 7-1 and the second 8-0 to take the match in straight sets and win the Junior Bowls3five title for Pukekohe.

A huge thank you to the Papakura Bowling Club for their fantastic hospitality. The greens played extremely well and the food was great. We look forward to this event

again next year with Papakura hosting.