We had men’s teams playing away from Levin yesterday; to the north, the Takaro Nines in Palmerston North and for the Mexted Cup at Paekakariki. Another day of sunshine was also on the calendar.
I had arranged our transport and leaving time on Sunday and knew that we were going to have an early start the next morning. I did a final check before retiring that night and had a look int he Centre Handbook to see what the details were for the day and it was then that I noted the starting time for play was 9.30am. This was quite a shock because our club’s handbook had the starting time as 9.00am for the day’s play. Early the next morning, I contacted the host club and the later starting time was confirmed which then meant I had to let my players have some extra time for rest before we set off to play.
The Mexted Cup is played for by teams of Fours selected from club workers and on their arrival at the club, all players would have appreciated the problems Paekakariki is having with its green
We were really surprised to see the condition of their green. There were areas of contrasting colours to be seen; in some parts, the normal cotula green but in other areas, large patches of dark moss or something like that. Small holes were to be seen in various places and we were told that blackbirds did a lot of investigating. It was obvious the club was having problems but we all realised that they were doing what they could and we accepted the challenge of playing on the surface.
A bye was necessary in each of the four rounds and we had one during the day. Rex and I went for a short walk to view the coastline and Kapiti Island and the South Island were clearly visible.
We played three games during the day; the first a win by one point on the last end, the second a loss by one from the Waitarere Beach team.Their skip managed to get the winning shot with his last bowl. Our last game was another win so we did pretty well and came second overall at the end of play. The Whitby team won their four games with 23 ends won, we came in second with 3 wins and 22 ends, and Otaki, last years winners, came third with three wins and 21 ends.
It was a really enjoyable day on and off the green and we hope that the Paekakariki Club manage to deal with their green’s problems.
Our Nines team played their first of the four Mondays of competition in Palmerston North at the Takaro Club. Games this round were against Hokowhitu and Central Levin
Results were:
Pairs – Two losses – 13-24 and 16-19
Triples: Win 33-4 and a draw 15 all
Fours: Win 25-11 and a Draw 18 all