The MARAC Women’s Premier Open Singles tournament continued at Pakuranga today. In contrast to the rain that plagued the games on Saturday the players started in brilliant sunshine on Sunday morning, yet had to don the wet weather gear again in the afternoon for intermittent showers.  To the relief of the centre president, who was marking the final, the weather cleared again for the last match of the day.

The first round of post section on Sunday, which was the last 16 players, produced some great results. Unluckiest loser was probably Manu Timoti who having lead Auckland’s Rae Hammond, for most of the game then got stuck on 19 points for the last four ends, while Rae kept creeping forward . As the time ran out Hammond picked up the last end with two shots to take the game 20-19.

In other games of the round, Gail Dick just triumphed over Janice McLean 21-19, Hayley May beat Hikurangi’s Betty Powhare, Elaine McClintock beat Bev Crowe 21-17, Karen Hema had a comfortable win over Hetty Bolscher 21-11, and Anne Bateman and Leanne Chinery both had easy wins over their opponents 21-9 and 21-8 respectively.

In the final game of the round Ann Muir came from behind to level the scores on the 14th end over Keitha Heta. The two players level pegged until the 19th end when Ann Muir claimed three shots to lead 19-15, and then a further shot on the 20th end to be 20-15. Heta then won two shots off the next end but Muir claimed the game 21-17.

In the quarterfinals Rae Hammond had control over Hayley May 9-3 by the seventh end.  Only scoring once in the next eight ends Hayley May leveled the score at 11 all on the 16th end.  Hammond came back and only dropped one end in the next eight ends to win 21-12.

In the second quarterfinal Elaine McClintock got off to a good start and by the 11th end was 12-5 up over Gail Dick.  Dropping five of the next six ends McClintock allowed Dick to close the game to 13-11.  McClintock picked up six on the next three ends but then allowed Dick to claim three of the next four ends.  The final score was 21-17 to McClintock.

The third quarterfinal between Karen Hema and Leanne Chinery saw Hema take an early lead 8-3, only to drop two fours in quick succession and letting Chinery back into a close fought game.  Hema had her vengeance on the 11th end when she picked up a four.  Despite Chinery picking up six of the last nine ends, the game finished with Hema the victor 21-18.

The last of the quarterfinals was the Kensington clash between Ann Muir and Anne Bateman.  Muir struggled to find speed or line and was down 12-1 by the tenth end.  Muir made a slight recovery but Bateman never allowed her back into the game and won 21-8.

The first semi-final was played between Rae Hammond and Elaine McClintock.  Hammond having played great draw bowls for the entire tournament to date lost her way in this game, got off to a slow start and played catch up all the way to no avail.  The final score was 21-14.

The second semi-final saw the well supported home girl Karen Hema play Kensington’s Anne Bateman.  Hema dropped a four early in the game but clawed her way back to 9-11 by the 15th end.  However, Hema dropped two fours in quick succession from which she could not recover and Bateman took the win 21-12.  The final then turned into a north of the bridge event with McClintock facing Bateman.   

McClintock, who was in the winning women’s triples team at the Trusts NZ Open last year,  showed superb drawing skills and didn’t allow Bateman into the game.  By the 12th end McClintock was 12-3 up and even when Bateman had bowls six inches behind the jack McClintock outdrew them. The final score was 21 -9 to McClintock.

Full results can be seen in related documents on the right.

Auckland Bowls extends its sincerest thanks to the clubs for the use of their facilities, the umpires for giving their time so unstintingly and the markers who worked tirelessly on Saturday in difficult conditions. We also express our thanks to the players who co- operated so well on Saturday and particularly those who stayed to mark games once defeated.