BOWLS
Dale Rowe and Steve Willis took the major spoils in the Wairarapa champion of champions singles tournament played at Greytown on Sunday.
Rowe from Featherston got the better of Greytown junior Glenda Evans to win the women’s title 21-12, and Willis prevailed 21-18 in a tight final against Martinborough’s Gary Muriwai.
In Saturday’s Champion of Champion pairs, the experienced Masterton combination of Judith Wyeth and Tina Hogg were too good for Lansdowne’s Elva Simonsen and Dale Stanton, winning the women’s final 23-14.
The talented Martinborough pair Aaron Love and Mark O’Brien claimed the men’s pairs, beating Darren Meyrick and Dean Hands from Greytown 20-10.
The Champion of Champions triples and fours will be played on the weekend of March 25-26.
And then there were two
FOOTBALL
Wairarapa will have only two teams in the Capital men’s leagues after the withdrawal of Masterton Athletic from the premier four division.
Masterton AFC spokesman Gary McLean confirmed yesterday that a lack of players good enough to play in division four who would commit to regular travel was the reason why the club had made the decision to pull the team.
He said from last year’s squad, three players had retired, two had moved out of the area, three had transferred to Greytown, and another three only wanted to play local league football.
The withdrawal comes only one season after Athletic had returned to the capital leagues for the first time in several years.
After a shaky start of four consecutive losses, Athletic came home strongly to finish fifth, just two points off third place.
Douglas Villa will play in Capital division two, and Greyfriars Greytown will be in the third division.
Hosting the nationals
INDOOR BOWLS
Hosting the zone finals for the national Champion of Champions finals will be the highlight of the Wairarapa indoor bowls season that starts this week.
The playoffs for the singles, mixed fours, mixed pairs, and masters fours will be played at the Hogg Crescent complex on July 1-2, with the winners to progress to the national finals.
Before then though, there will be a full calendar of club and representative events.
The East and Clareville clubs started their club nights last night, Central will start next Tuesday, and the Horseshoe Club will meet on Thursday afternoons. Interclub matches start in early May.
The representative programme also kicks off in May with the Horn Trophy against Bush-Ruahine and Horowhenua, followed by the Burton Trophy against Upper Hutt, and the Tombs Trophy against Bush-Ruahine.
