On Sunday 21 July Levin Bowling Club held its annual bowls tournament involving short-format games. Four years ago the club broke new ground by being one of the first in the country to hold a tournament of this type which was played on the Club’s Dales Pro-Green Plus carpet green. The tournament included both pairs and singles games and attracted players from other local clubs and from the Manawatu Centre.
The main event was the 2-bowl, 2-end Pairs. Sixteen pairs played a round robin event with each pair playing all of the other fifteen teams over a three hour period. With a number of top-rated players involved there were some excellent close matches and spectators witnessed bowls of a high standard in this compressed format.
By the end of the competition the leading pair, Levin Bowls players Murray Griffin and Omeka Feaunati had a 12 win, 1 draw record from their fifteen games. Second and third placings also went to Levin Bowls players with Rob Cotter and Barnaby Hamid having 10 wins and 2 draws and Neville Turnbull who teamed up with fifteen year old Waiopehu College student Samantha Sweeney ended-up scoring 9 wins and 3 draws. Ten wins gained fourth place for Central players Gary Wylie and Nicky Morgan, and the ‘Lucky’ team prize went to husband and wife team of Glenda and Kevin Rowsell of Levin Bowls.
The pair’s event was followed by a Knockout Singles also played with 2 bowls over 2 ends with an extra end played if scores were even after the two ends. After around an hour’s play this event resulted in a victory for Terry Johnson of the Northern club in Palmerston North. Terry is one of New Zealand’s leading players having only a few years ago won the New Zealand Professional Bowls Association’s indoor singles tournament, being rewarded with a trip to the World Indoor singles in Scotland. In Sunday’s final he defeated another top Manawatu player Daryll Johnson of the Himitangi Beach Club, a previous winner of the Manawatu Centre Champion-of-Champions Singles. The beaten semi-finalists were Rob Cotter and Grahame Law, both very competent Levin Bowls singles winners from the previous season.
At the presentation after the end of play a number of players commented on their enjoyment after playing in what was for a lot of players a completely new event in comparison with the usual bowls event in which the winners are determined over a period of days rather than a few hours. Levin Bowls were congratulated for their initiative in hosting this event.