A big congratulations to Wayne Coleman who not only won a new bowls bag at our Victoria Grant’s Whiskey Corner-2-Corner competition final on Friday night, but then went on to finish runner-up in the Regional competition on Saturday at the Wilton club therefore winning a trip to Auckland next month! All this on his birthday!
The Regional finals were all about keeping your bowl on the green on the slick Wilton carpet. Wayne was drawn for heat 1 where only four bowls out of 8 finished on the green so Wayne was one of those 4 making it to the last 12 bowlers. In the next round, only 11 bowls finished on the rink out of 24!!! Spectators were dumbfounded at players continuing to launch bowls off the rink when something at their feet would have qualified them further! Into the last 11, and Wayne was first to lead off and put up a good bowl – the only concern was it was fairly close to a side-ditch and might be knocked off by the speedy competition but the over-zealous ones all slid past on their way to the drink. Into the final six bowls and a cautious Wayne looked a little short (12 feet?) but runs on the board… Otaki Railway played a superb bowl to take the Regional title, however there were 2 spots in Auckland up for grabs. Two bowls went into the ditch, and the last two fell just short of Wayne, so on to Auckland!!!
The national final is on Saturday 14th April at the Mt. Eden club at 2pm. Wayne gets travel and 2 nights accomodation paid for, and plays for a $3000 first prize for the club! Good luck and keep that great tactical thinking up Wayne!
