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Bowls Win To Team Led By Past Champion
A past New Zealand champion, S. E. N. Smith, Auckland, led his team to victory in a “sudden-death” round of games from post-section fours play, which concluded the North Taranaki Indoor Bowls Association’s annual Queen’s Birthday tournament in New Plymouth yesterday.
Smith, who is deaf, has often been in teams which have won the New Zealand fours twice, and one of the team, B. Pridham, has won the Auckland singles three years, running.
Smith will compete in the New Zealand championships in Wanganui this weekend.
Thirty-four qualifying teams played off to qualify for the “sudden death” round yesterday. The winning Auckland team was Mrs K. Smith, M. Charlesworth, B. Pridham, Smith (skip).
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The runner-up was Oaonui. The team was S. Young, G. Clark, H. Turu and K. Murray (skip).
Third equal were Inglewood and Kakaramea. Teams were: Inglewood, Mrs Pease, Mrs O. Bailey, R. Ashton, H. Bailey (skip); Kakaramea, Miss V. Murray, I. Murray, Mrs M. Grey, P. Ward (skip).
Next Queen’s Birthday the North Taranaki Association will be host for the New Zealand Indoor Bowls Federation’s North Island championships in New Plymouth. About 350 fours and 750 pairs are expected to compete.
Yesterday’s results were: First round, S. E. N. Smith (Auckland) bt B. Johns (Glenpark) 10-5, N. Heibner (Te Kuiti) bt O. Jordan (Stratford) 10-3; second round, H. Bailey (Inglewood) bt P. Ward (Kakaramea) 7-5; P. Ward (Kakaramea) bt N. Watson (Tataraimaka) 14-5; K. Murray (Oaonui) by F. Denham (Vogeltown) 10-5; semi-final, Smith bt Bailey 7-6; Murray bt Ward 14-6; final, Smith bt Murray 12-5.
John gave indoor bowls a go in the late 1960s and played for about a decade. He started in 1968, the year his team won the overall Jerome Plate. He was lucky to play under Skip Sen Smith, a top indoor bowls player in both Auckland and New Zealand. John remembers how everyone had to dress formally for team photos, wearing suits and ties. Unlike today’s more relaxed style, he believes things were better back then.
NZSL story – Taonga source: Unknown, Colleen Norris
Colleen’s Bowls Win While Six Months Pregnant
Colleen explains how she got involved in Auckland Deaf Society’s indoor bowls team for the 1968 NZ Deaf Sports Convention in Christchurch. The team was short on players, and since her husband was already going to play basketball, she decided to join. Her mother-in-law came to help look after her daughter. At the time, Colleen was six months pregnant. Despite that, she won the singles, doubles, and team events. She remembers how formal team photos were back then. In the November team photo, everyone tried to hide her pregnancy!
