"The friendly club in the heart of the Bay."
Following on from their success in the National Fours last year, Bev White and Josephine Connolly entered the National Championships held in Lower Hutt and Wellington. While the main reason was to defend their Fours title, Josephine also played in the Singles and they played together in the Pairs. Bev in particular was a reluctant entrant, at almost 78 years of age she thinks it is time to leave the Nationals to the young ones.
The first event was the Singles, three of the four games were required to qualify. After beating a former NZ representative and one other, Josephine went down to a current member of the NZ squad and a well-regarded Canterbury rep, failing to qualify. Tough, but that is the quality of the opposition at this level.
The next two days were devoted to Pairs qualifying. Overnight rain delayed play at the Hutt greens for an hour, while the rest of the day was wet and windy. White/Connolly had a good day with three wins. Their Fours team-mates, Kay Tomlinson & Colleen Kempton fared not so well, their single win virtually sealing their fate. The following day's weather was almost a repeat of the previous day. Bev and Josephine crashed to defeat against Hikurangi before recovering to win the last two. They have now qualified - Kay and Colleen have not.
Two days of rest, time to put up the feet for a while, maybe do some shopping. Saturday morning, early, Bev and Josephine are playing "sudden death" at the Lower Hutt Women's Bowling Club in squally conditions. They have the bye so there are only two games today. Both are close, the second one only won after a desperate drive secured a four on the last end.
Down to the last 16 now and the girls encounter another difficult morning in Lower Hutt, raining with predicted gusts of up to 100 kph. Not a great day for playing bowls but Bev and Josephine were off to a good start winning their round four match. Round five was another tough match, after 17 ends the scores were tied at 17 all. A two in the eighteenth gave our girls the win.
After a late lunch they faced their semi-final opponents skipped by high-pedigree Karen Coombe, Wanganui. One more tight game found them tied at 12 all at the seventeenth but a fantastic five on the last end put them into the final. A late report in the Bowls New Zealand web site reads:
"The Women's Pairs final will be between Omanu's Bev White and partner Josephine Connolly and New Lynn's Reen Stratford and Bev Crowe with White easing past Wanganui's New Zealand representative Karen Coombe and international team mate Genevieve Baildon 17-12 in the semi final."
This mornings final was played for the first time in sunny conditions. It was a big surprise when Bev's daughter Karen, granddaughter Jane and great granddaughter Ava arrived from Wanganui in support. Their opponents were New Lynn's Reen Stratford and Bev Crowe. Frequently throughout the game scores were tied, after 12 ends the score was 11 all. After 17 ends, the girls were 15-14 down with one end to go. The last end went against them, the final score was 17-14 and our girls had to be satisfied with Runner-up. They were not too unhappy, to come second in the National competition is a great achievement.
Bowls New Zealand reported as follows:
"In the women's pairs, the Auckland composite of Reen Stratford and lead Bev Crowe were victorious in picking up the 2010 Women's Pairs National title defeating the formidable Omanu combination of Bev White and Josephine Connolly 17-14."
After the highs and lows of the Pairs, it would have seemed an anti-climax to play two days of fours to qualify. The four started well enough with two wins, but that was all they could manage. Despite that, the 2010 Nationals would have to be classed as a success. And there were other highlights too apart from the many friendships made in he bowling community. There was a chance meeting with All Black Rodney So'oialo who relished the chance to have his photo taken with two other stars!