Of the many fine achievements by North Harbour bowlers this season, the effort which has perhaps been the most exceptional has come from Mairangi Bay in the centre’s recent inter-club competitions.
The club achieved a remarkable treble by winning all three of North Harbour’s sevens titles: the Men’s Open, the Women’s Open and the mixed second division. For the men’s and women’s teams, that meant winning the right to represent Harbour at this month’s national playoffs in Wellington.
It was the third year in a row the women’s team has won the Harbour sevens title, a notable feat itself and, adding further lustre to both that performance and that of the men’s team, both titles were won in the most dramatic circumstances.
The women won an exciting final over Birkenhead, which had not only the advantage of playing at home but was coming off a narrow semi-final win over a strong Takapuna team, which had at least three players from that club’s own recent major triumph. That was in the previous week when at Mt Maunganui, Lisa Dickson, Lauren Mills and Anne Dorreen all capped their illustrious careers by being in the Takapuna four, which won in convincing fashion the national fours title.
In the winning Mairangi Bay team were Elaine McClintock, Sheryl Wellington, Jan Gledhiil, Theresa Rogers and Colleen Rice, all of whom have won multiple Harbour titles, plus two of the centre’s most promising juniors, Julie Chhour and Jodie Cottier.
Another relatively new player, Michael Thomas, emerged as the hero of the men’s Mairangi Bay team, which won a spine-tingling final over a more fancied Birkenhead which included four current Harbour representatives, Nick Thompson, David Eades, Daymon Pierson and Brian Wilson.
After Birkenhead had comfortably won the fours from Mairangi Bay’s Leon Wech, Allan Langley, Bruce McClintock and Brian Rogers, it seemed almost certain that Birkenhead would win, particularly as it had in-form players in Thompson in the singles and Pierson and Eades in the pairs. A Birkenhead win became even more likely when Thompson jumped away to a 12-2 lead in the 21-shot game. But the slightly-built Thomas, just 31 and only a sixth-year player, made an astonishing comeback to eventually overhaul the deficit and go on to a 21-16 win. It was not a case of Thompson suddenly playing badly, but simply one of Thomas being able to go one better on the draw, even when Thompson had bowls close to the jack.
Largely unknown outside Mairangi Bay, Thomas has put work commitments ahead of his bowls and as a junior had only an occasional representative involvement. He was also a reluctant singles player, only taking up the role when Gordon Jenkins was unavailable because of injury and after he had won the club singles title 21-20 over David Payne. The latter, however, was another of Mairangi Bay’s heroes, along with Phil Chisholm, in winning the pairs from Pierson and Eades. Birkenhead seemed to have overcome Thompson’s surprise loss when coming to the last end of a thrilling pairs match, Pierson and Eades led 18-16. But with superb draw bowls, Chisholm and Payne survived Pierson’s efforts to disrupt the head to pick up three shots and a 19-18 win, a result literally decided on the last bowl.
Mairangi Bay’s depth was shown by the equally meritorious second division title win. Members of this team were several club stalwarts, Ian Coombe, Barry McCrystal, Peter Orgias, Larry Cain, Rosemary Nicol, Lorna Donald, Glenda Rountree and Judi Farkash.
