Surface flooding on the No 2 green at the North East Valley Bowling Club hosted event saw play split between its No 1 green and the Lawn Bowls Stadium, with play limited to 14 ends with a two-hour time limit for each round.
Only late yesterday afternoon was play able to continue at the North East Valley No 1 green as it played host to the quarterfinal qualifying stage. While play initially began in calm sunny conditions, it quickly changed to test the players again with virtually all four season and weather conditions experienced between ends.
Defending champions Keanu Darby and Tayla Bruce were untroubled by the inclement conditions at the host green in the first round of section play, defeating Nic Tomsett and Caitlin Thomson 17-8.
But they struggled in the second round against Aiden Takarua and Kerry Heffer, who were on the rebound from a first-round 16-11 loss to to Kaylin Huwyler and Briar Atkinson. In a game of two halves after the game was transferred to the stadium after nine ends, Darby and Bruce still failed to settle into their rhythm for the first major upset of the tournament going down 12-8.
Darby and Bruce rebounded with one-sided victories in their next three games to automatically qualify for the quarterfinal stage on aggregate. Takarua and Heffer failed to progress out of section play after a 10-6 loss to Robbie Bird and Kimberley Hemingway.
Bird and Hemingway then knocked out in the qualifying rounds in a last bowl thriller by Hamish Kelleher and Ashleigh Jeffcoat.
In early rounds of section play Bird and Hemingway also defeated the international pairing of Kerrin Wheeler and Teri Blackburn.
Down 10-8 heading into the 14th and final end, Kelleher and Jeffcoat combined to crowd the head, drawing three shots to save themselves from an early exit and earn the right to meet Brent McEwan and Tania Woodham in the quarterfinals today.
McEwan and Woodham were the only undefeated pair in section play. Their major scalp was that of internationals Sheldon Bagrie-Howley and Val Smith whom they defeated 15-9. This forced Bagrie-Howley and Smith into the playoff zone to earn a passage into the quarterfinal stage. And what a humdinger of a match they had to qualify.
Playing the dual international pairing of Ben and Helen King, only on the last bowl was Bagrie-Howley able to save the game going to an extra end the possibility of an early exit, winning 13-12.
But it was only daylight that could separate the qualifying match between Finbar McGuigan and Sarah Scott, who were playing fellow national squad members Aiden Takarua and Kerry Heffer.
The game was locked up 13-13 heading into the 14th and final end. Takarua and Heffer positioned two shots on the jack on a crowded head, forcing Scott and McGuigan on the drive.
Four consecutive drives by the two went wide before McGuigan, with the final bowl of the end, decided to draw, reducing the deficit but failing to halt the progress of Takarua and Heffer into the quarterfinal stage.
The remaining quarterfinal will be a match between the husband and wife combination of Roger and Bronwyn Stevens and Craig Merrilees and Clare Hendra.
The Stevens combination topped section 3, losing only their first round match against McGuigan and Scott only then to record a string of one-sided victories to automatically qualify in aggregate and force McGuigan and Scott into the play-off stage.
The quarterfinal matches are set to get under way on the North East Valley No 1 green at 8.30am today. The semifinal matches will follow with the final set to start at 1.30pm. All matches will return to the original format of 16 ends with no time limit.
A feature of the quarterfinal stage will be the contest in which Darby and Bruce play Bagrie-Howley and Smith, the winner of which will arguably be favoured to progress and lift the title.
- By Wayne Parsons
