Ian Monaghan played number three in the Brian Little-skipped four that made the national championship semifinals in Central Otago. PHOTOS/FILE
BOWLS
CHRIS COGDALE
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Masterton bowler Ian Monaghan has mixed feelings about his best performance at national level in making the semifinals at the national fours championship in Central Otago.
Monaghan, 61, who has won 70 Wairarapa centre titles, had previously made the last 16 at the nationals in Auckland in the early 1990s.
Although a member of Lansdowne and the club’s latest crowned singles champion, Monaghan now regularly plays out of the Palmerston North club.
For the nationals, he played at number three with Palmerston North clubmate Brian Little as skip.
The team was completed by Takapuna clubmates – 1974 Commonwealth Games 200m bronze medallist and 1972 Munich Olympian Bevan Smith as lead, and Brett O’Riley at number two.
The four topped their qualifying group with five wins.
They then defeated Aiden Takarua, 19-11, in the round of 32, Rodney Fleming, 21-19, in the round of 16, and Rob Ashton, 19-16, in the quarterfinals.
That set up a semifinal against the Maurice Symes-skipped four, which included John Gray, Craig MacDonell and Steve Beel.
Symes prevailed 24-13, and went on to win the championship, but Monaghan felt the semifinal was a game they could have won.
“We were happy but disappointed, we didn’t quite perform as well as we had been, and it was a winnable game too,” he said.
“The green we played on was very sticky and a bit slow, and we couldn’t get going.
“The greens were really tricky. Even in the final, the teams were struggling.
“I think Bowls NZ told them they had to run about 16 seconds. We were at Roxburgh and it must have been running about 21 seconds.
“If you throw them out and hardly put any weight on them, they just turn and come back.”
Another mostly Wairarapa combination of skip Garry Muriwai [Martinborough], Hayden Frew and Stewart Campbell [both Featherston], and Ralph Vulu [Stokes Valley] failed to progress past section play, winning only two of their qualifying games.
In the women’s fours, the team of Featherston’s Tanya Wheeler and Dale Rowe, Makaia Campbell [Masterton], and Rozanna Muriwai [Martinborough] also missed qualifying, with two wins.
Monaghan followed up his good form in the fours and partnered another Wairarapa bowler, Fiona Mancer, to qualify for post-section play in the national 2-4-2 championships, also played in Central Otago.
However, their winning run came to an end in the round of 128, beaten 10-18 by the Whanganui pair of former world champion Peter Belliss and partner Reen Stratford.
Hayden and Janalle Frew also qualified for post section play, only to be knocked out 13-16 by Bruce McNish and Dale Bourke.
Rowe and Robert Gibson [Taieri] progressed to the round of 64 with an 18-13 defeat of Rob and Sheila Crimlis from Tauranga.
Wheeler and Eastbourne’s Scott Roddick advanced to the round of 64, where they were eliminated 5-18 by the Stokes Valley pair of John and Cherie Brien.
