Written by Grant Hassell for stuff.co.nz
Despite an opening round loss, Blackjack Val Smith safely made it through to post section play in the women’s singles at the New Zealand bowls championships in Taranaki on Saturday.
Smith (Merrylands, Sydney) lost her opening game 21-18 to Pt. Chevalier’s Jenny Stockford before winning her next two relatively comfortably. She still needed another and she duly delivered 21-12 over St Clair’s Carolyn Crawford. Smith will be joined in post section by a host of high quality players.
Tayla Bruce (Burnside), who has been close to the title the last three seasons, was an emphatic three winner, while Jo Edwards (United) also did it the easy way, which prevented what could have been a titanic fourth round game. Among Edwards victims were past national titleholders Reen Stratford (Aramoho) and Gayle Melrose (Papakura).
It was the same stress-free story with Leigh Griffin (Victoria), the champion of two seasons ago, and current Black Jack Angela Boyd (Burnside). Boyd’s toughest test came from New Plymouth’s Val McEldowney, the champion the last time the nationals were in Taranaki. Boyd won 21-18, with McEldowney missing the cut this time.
Sarah Scott (North East Valley), who represented New Zealand at the Hong Kong classic in November, put her pairs disappointment behind her with three straight wins to qualify. Her toughest test was in round two when she beat One Tree Point’s Jenny Hardie 21-16.
Other nationally known players to win three in-a-row were Ashleigh Jeffcoat (Frankton Junction), Katelyn Inch (Oxford WMC), Lisa White (Naenae), Kirsten Edwards (United) and Cathy Andrews (Paritutu).
Rebecca Jelley (Carlton Cornwall), the granddaughter of famous athletics coach Arch Jelley, made it through in fine style in a winner-take-all fourth round against Wanganui representative Dianne Patterson, triumphing 21-2.
Meanwhile, upsets were few and far between on the second day of the men’s pairs qualifying, with 62 combinations gaining the necessary four wins from the six rounds for Wednesday’s post section play.
After suffering a slip-up on Friday, Peter Belliss (Aramoho) and Lance Tasker (Tauranga) walked through with two easy victories, as did Gary Lawson (Sumner) and Neville Rodda (Victoria).
Two other strong pairs to win their first two games to advance were Jamie Hill (Eastbourne) and Barry O’Brien (Victoria) and the 2015 winners, Rob Ashton and Petar Sain (Carlton Cornwall).
Richard Girvan (Onehunga) and Blake Signal (Stokes Valley) went through emphatically with four-straight victories, as the Gold Coast-based duo of Brian Baldwin and Gary Mounsey, who are playing under the Paritutu banner for these championships.
Glen Eden’s Taylor Horn and Jesse Russell, who won last season’s Auckland-based NZ Open title, won four on the trot to qualify.
However, they lost their unbeaten status in round five, when they fell to two Taranaki representatives, Craig Johns and John Roberts, which gave the West Enders the necessary fourth win.
Both the men and women commence fours qualifying on Sunday.
