Section play of the Men's Interclub 7's was played at the West End and Temuka greens on Saturday and Sunday. With a new format this year, clubs were able to enter more than one team in the competition, with the top two clubs from each section qualifying for the knockout stage to be played at Kia Toa this Saturday 16th December.
Kia Toa, Temuka, Geraldine, and West End entered two teams and with the late withdrawal of Pleasant Point, Kia Toa added another team to stop the bye.
Last year's winning team Temuka, who finished 3rd equal in the National final, were in devastating form this year only losing two games and topped the section.
The teams were pulled out of a hat and section 1 looked to be the easier section of the two. In section 1, it was a race between Kia Toa 1 and West End 1. A strong performance was displayed from former Black Jack Sean O’Neill, who was in outstanding form over the two days and had to bring out his best to beat New Zealand squad member Tom Taiaroa. O’Neill was down 6 points to 20 in the race to 21 but O’Neill had a golden patch and dominated the second half of the game, playing outstanding bowls to stun Taiaroa and win 21 to 20. He remained unbeaten over the two days. Taiaroa then went on to win the rest of his matches in true style.
Once again the West End fours team of Garry Ford, Barrie Andrews, Shayne Chisnall, and Bruce Wakefield proved to be the team to beat with convincing wins against all clubs they played.
Other teams to just lose one game were Trev Cloughley and the inform bowler Aaron Taylor from Kia Toa, who is having an outstanding year, and Fairlie's Mitchell Dunbar and Jeremy Stanley only losing one game.
In Section 2 with one round to play it was a race between three clubs - Kia Toa, West End 2, and Geraldine. The number two spot was only decided on the last bowl.
Geraldine had to win all three games and hope they got favorable results from the other clubs and this nearly happened with Geraldine winning both the Singles and Pairs, but the Fours were having a battle to beat Kia Toa 3, and with outstanding bowls by John Donaldson's team especially on the last two ends, ended their chances. This then moved to Kia Toa vs West End's fours game with Kia Toa beating West End in a cliffhanger which went down to the last bowl with Kia Toa needing to win by five to advance to the semi final which they only did on the last bowl.
A standout performance from the Temuka four of Roger Jackson, Greg Valentine, Dave Wood, and the legend Hans Winkelman, winning all five games.
Other teams to lose just one game were Dean Harper who lost to Marshall Stoddart which gave both singles players one loss each. Temuka’s Sam Morton and Merv Davey had four good wins with a narrow loss to the Timaru pair.
The Semi final will be played at the Kia Toa green at 10.00am with the final in the afternoon.
Winner Section 1 Kia Toa 1 plays Runner up Section 2 Kia Toa 2
Winner Section 2 Temuka 1 players Runner up Section 1 West End
Section 1 Points
Ist Kia Toa 36+78, 2nd West End 1 33 + 76, 3rd Fairlie 22 + 3, 4th Geraldine 16 – 25, 5th Temuka 2 9 -52, 6th Waimate 9 -72
Section 2
Ist Temuka 1 39 + 88, 2nd Kia Toa 2 24 + 10, 3rd West End 2 24 -10, 4th Geraldine 22 +37, 5th Timaru 12-95 10 -44, 6th Kia Toa 3 10 -44
- Richie Kerr