Kidd loses first two

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 38

Kidd loses first two

Hamilton

The reigning fours champion, Thelma Kidd (Matamata), suffered two losses in her first two games in the women’s national bowling tournament in Hamilton yesterday.

Kidd, who is competing with the same team as last year, lost, 11-21, in her first game against Doris Soppitt (Sunnybrae). She lost a closer second match, 19-20, to Miriam Field (Carlton).

Kidd will look for a strong performance today as she needs to win four of her six games to go on to post-section play. Nearly 2000 women are playing in the tournament, which is being held in Hamilton for the first time in 14 years.

The fours began yesterday with 434 teams playing their first two games. Post-section play will start on Thursday, with the winners of four games or section winners qualifying.

The singles will begin on Friday and the pairs on Monday. In another upset yesterday, Ann Katavich (Point Wells) , a Commonwealth Games team member, had two close losses — against Pae Paraka (Kawakawa), 19-22, and against Betty Shannon (Matua), 16-18. Other Commonwealth Games team members had a more successful day although Denise Page (Linwood) lost one of her games. Three other Com-

monwealth Games team members had two wins on the first day. Joyce Osborne (Manawatu) had two resounding victories, 37-8 and 27-10, while Judy Howat (Wellington) showed good form, winning 31-15 and 28-12. Rhoda Ryan (Matamata), who won the fours title in 1981, won her first game, 26-19, and had a strong second win, 24-7. Daphne le Breton, whose omission from the Commonwealth Games team was a talking point, won convincingly, 35-12, in her first game but just scraped in, 16-15, in the second.

Jean Ryan, the fours winner in 1983 and 1984, had a win and a loss.