2026 Nationals – Top Showing by Bowls North Harbour
After what had been a tournament of mainly qualified achievement, from a North Harbour viewpoint, the national fours championships in Mt Maunganui were suddenly galvanised on Sunday’s final day when two teams with strong Harbour connections excelled.
Lisa Dickson’s Takapuna line-up of three Lauren Mills, two Hannah Dawson and lead Anne Dorreen brilliantly won the women’s title, beating the Dale Raynere-skipped Wellington-Auckland composite 20-8 in the final, with one end left of the scheduled 18. Then two other Takapuna club members, Graham Skellern and Brent Malcolm, combined with Bart Robertson, now in Taranaki but formerly of Helensville and a multiple Harbour champion, and Taranaki’s Dennis Brewster, to make the men’s final.
It was the first time all of Lisa’s team had won a national championship, though in 2002, along with Robyne Walker, Lisa, Lauren and Anne had won the champion of champion fours and that same year the national inter-club sevens. In the case, particularly of Lisa and Anne, winning a full national title was overdue, as each has been close previously, Anne leading some years ago for a four of mainly Central Otago bowlers. There was almost a touch of inevitability about the way the Dickson four went about winning their title. They were utterly dominant throughout the event, qualifying after just four rounds of section play and continuing that form in post-section.
In the final they rarely looked in danger of defeat, starting strongly and only looking to be threatened on the 11th end when the margin was only 10-7. But any prospect of an opposition comeback was stifled on the 12th end, when after being two down, Lisa, who played with typical composure and control, drew the jack dead with her last bowl. It was a complete team effort, though, by Lisa’s four, with each player contributing at crucial moments. Lauren, particularly in playing positional bowls, and Hannah were steady in the middle, and Anne, a usual, set a strong platform up front. On the rare occasions when she was astray she invariably corrected with her second bowl.
The championship title continued a great week for Lisa and Lauren, as with Elaine McClintock and Theresa Rogers, they were in the Harbour four which went undefeated in the recent Octagonal tournament. Their form, plus the return of Black Jack star Selina Goddard, augurs well for the national inter-centre next month. And with her win Hannah, at just 19, created a little bit of history, for she is just one of the few teenagers, the great Mandy Boyd being one, who have become national champions.
The Skellern four lost out in the final to Southland’s Black Jack, Sheldon Bagrie-Howley and his team in the men’s final. But it was an outstanding effort to finish a worthy second, with Brent Malcolm just missing out on joining his parents as a national champion. The Skellern four made the final after an epic semi-final against the strong Auckland line-up of former Black Jack Mike Galloway, winning 19-18 on an extra end.
Other North Harbour combinations failed to go deep in the tournament. Browns Bay’s Neil Fisher skipping Birkenhead’s Nick Thompson, Steve Hoeft and Jerry Belcher played well in section play but fell in the opening post-section match. That was also the fate of Jo Wyatt, Carol Voshaar, Deanne Bronlund and Stacey McDonald in the women’s four. But to make post-section was a fine effort as last season they were in the centres one-to-five representative squad. Other players from Harbour clubs, Manly’s Shaun Goldsbury and Skye Renes, Browns Bay’s Matt Berry and Takapuna’s Leeane Poulson, were all part of composites with players from other centres which were involved in the later rounds.