Bowls: Wakari to represent Dunedin in regional final

Peter Barron
Peter Barron
It was down to the wire. Fours skip Peter Barron turned the game Wakari's way when he drew the shot with his first bowl on the final end.

Barron was two down on the head and drew to the jack to give Wakari the advantage.

His Forbury Park opposite Rod Fleming attempted to smash Barron's shot bowl off the rink but he was off target with his two drives.

The game was evenly poised at 8-all with just two ends left. But Wakari consolidated its hold by scoring two shots on the penultimate end.

The Wakari team of Bryan Williamson, Ray Anderson, Stephen Hughes and Barron beat Cyril Torrance, Glen Murtagh, Duane White and Rod Fleming 11-8 in the fours.

It put Wakari into the men's interclub sevens regional final at the Taieri green yesterday, when Forbury Park was beaten 4-2.

Wakari will represent Bowls Dunedin when the regional final for zone six from Timaru to Invercargill is played in Dunedin in March.

Ross Brown gave Forbury Park a flying start when he beat Nathan Yates (Wakari) 25-6 in the singles.

It meant that Wakari had to win both the pairs and fours to get into the regional finals.

The Wakari pair of Kieran Fleury and Nigel Birkbeck gave Wakari a chance when they beat Grant Stumbles and Dylan Edwards (Forbury Park) 13-10.

It was a repeat of last week's open pairs final that the Wakari combination won 18-13.

The game was even, with Forbury Park holding a slight edge 6-4 after eight of the 18 ends.

A three on the 12th end gave Wakari a 9-7 advantage and it was three up, 13-10, with just five ends left.

Forbury Park fought back and the game was evenly poised after 16 ends.

Fleury led accurately on the 17th end to give Wakari a two-shot advantage before the final end.

In the semifinals Forbury Park beat North East Valley 4-2 when it won the pairs 24-14 and the fours 21-13. North East Valley won the singles 25-19.

Wakari beat Andersons Bay 4-2 by winning the singles 25-24 and the fours 14-11. Andersons Bay won the pairs 23-13.

North East Valley won the women's final when it beat St Clair 5-1.

Rebecca Jelly (North East Valley) drew with the experienced Carolyn Crawford (St Clair) 23-all when time ran out.

The North East Valley pair of Shona Mann and Kay Hammond beat Gaynor Moss and Trish Marr (St Clair) 20-12 in the pairs.

North East Valley remained unbeaten when Sarah Scott, Noreen Paul, Donna Scott and Vicki Robinson beat Jean Pickles, Bev Knox, Rose Henderson and Alice Booth (St Clair) 18-12 in the fours.

North East Valley beat Fairfield 4-2 in the semifinals. Fairfield won the singles 25-20 but North East Valley won the pairs 22-15 and the fours 16-12.

St Clair made a clean sweep when it beat Green Island 6-0. It won the singles 25-12, pairs 22-12 and fours 18-12.

In the men's division 2 Fairfield beat Taieri 6-0, the highlight being Ross Thomson beating Bruce Walker 25-15 in the singles.

In the women's division 2 Andersons Bay beat Taieri 4-2. Sonya Sinclair (Andersons Bay) beat Wendy Hurring 25-20 in the singles.