Strong bowls entry

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 19

Strong bowls entry

Once again it will be the Linwood women who will carry the main hopes of a Canterbury victory at the national women’s bowls championships, which begin in Hamilton on Monday. This is the first time that the venue has been Hamilton and it is a fitting choice, as Waikato, especially the Matamata area, has developed into a rival for Auckland as the strongest women’s bowls centre in the country.

Linwood has five teams in the fours, which will be the first title decided. The two which should last the longest are those skipped by the New Zealand representatives, Lex Kimber and Denise Page.

Mrs Kimber has the same combination of Maureen Fisher, Elsie Williams and Altha Triggs which she got to the final with in Dunedin last year. In losing that final to Millie Khan (Matamata), Mrs Kimber continued

her bridesmaid role. It was the fourth occasion that she had been beaten in a national final.

Mrs Page’s four of Margaret Lloyd, Ora Bate and Marie Watson is even more highly regarded, although it was beaten by Mrs Kimber’s combination at a late stage in Dunedin. Mrs Page has already been chosen for the New Zealand team for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh later this year, and she, therefore, will not be under the added pressure of having to retain the place that she won last year.

The other three Linwood skips are Agnes Beazley, Helen Yates and Bryonne Immers. In recent years Mrs Beazley has been somewhat overshadowed by Mrs Kimber and Mrs Page, but unlike them she does have a national title to her credit.

This was the pairs in Christchurch in 1979 with, Thelma Anderson, who is her partner

against this time. All eight players in the fours skipped by Mrs Kimber and Mrs Page will be looking for good runs in the singles and pairs as well, andd if they can find their best form Mrs Page and Mrs Watson, could go very close in the pairs, as they did in Wellington two years ago.

Both Mrs Triggs and Mrs Bate showed they were in good singles touch by getting to the final of the Christchurch champion of-champions singles this week, a game Mrs Triggs won narrowly. As always, the strongest opposition is likely to come from the Auckland and Waikato entrants and the latter should be even more dangerous on their home greens.

However, Linwood has gained a deserved reputation for the quality of its players in the last 10 years and while Mrs Beazley’s pairs is its only national title in this time there have been some near misses. This year the luck may change.