Written by Sam Morton for The Southland Times
The Southland Women’s Sevens team have enjoyed their best result in half a decade at the National Intercentre competition, finishing third equal in an impressive display last weekend.
Hosted in Wellington, the men’s and women’s Open sides travelled to the capital to take on the best in the country.
Following a dicey start to qualifying, both teams found themselves up against it on day one, requiring a strong performance on day two to turn the tables on the overall results.
And that they did – both teams buying in to the challenge in fine style.
Progressing through to the quarter-finals, both teams remained well on track – though a tough match-up against 2015 champions Taranaki saw the men exit the competition by the narrowest of margins, losing 2-1 – with an umpire’s measure proving costly in the pairs on the final end.
A dominant effort from the Southland women saw them advance to the semi-finals, with Te Rangi’s Bronwyn Stevens continuing her irrepressible form in the singles, notching up victory over World Bowls Blackjack Kirsten Edwards, 25-24, while the quartet of Michelle Preston, Lynda Milne, Ange Francis and Jan Low secured the last eight victory, beating Nelson’s star studded line-up, 14-12.
The pairs narrowly went down by a solitary shot.
The semifinal exhibition saw Stevens take first blood for Southland defeating former Dunedin rep Sue Hodges, though a determined Bay of Plenty unit dashed all hopes, defeating the Southland pairing and fours respectively – bringing an end to the 2017 Intercentre tournament.
Stevens’ win completed a memorable record in the singles berth, winning five out of six games, while the pairs and fours combinations both secured three wins a piece, emulating the men’s third place finish from last season.
Southland open women’s manager Sue Kincaid was delighted with the result, and was quick to praise the comradeship of the team in their quest for a national title.
“Day two saw a change occur in the players with the completion of the fourth round and three wins secured, lifting the determination of players for the fifth round as qualifying was in sight,” Kincaid said.
“The feeling in the team was we can do this.”
“The combination of players and their internal motivation and focus generated the perfect working team. Bring on 2018.”
In a similar tribute, men’s team captain Craig Merrilees paid homage to the team compatibility throughout the event, and congratulated selectors Tony Cockerill and Ian Brown for their side-line efforts in supporting the team over the three-day event.
“On day one, it wasn’t looking good at all, we were equal last in our section. But such is the mark of that team, we all dug deep and turned it around,” Merrilees said.
“We played with pride and gave it everything we had and qualified through to the quarterfinals.”
“While it was gutting for us to go out in the last eight, there is certainly plenty we can take away from this campaign and build on for next season.”
Merrilees tallied four wins from six in the singles, while the pairing of Bryan Harvey and Roger Stevens completed three and a draw, with the fours of Lyall Spencer, Steve Sanders, Andrew MacGregor and Shane Elliot rounding out
the campaign with two wins and a draw.
In other news, Southland’s men and women development representative bowlers are gearing up for their turn next weekend, with teams heading to Christchurch to compete in the Bowls NZ National Under 8s Intercentre.
