BNH Pennants – It’s a Wrap – 31st October 2025

Riverhead, one of the centre’s rural clubs which so often has battled above its weight, won the Bowls North Harbour pennants inter-club competition for the 2025-26 season when the title was decided at Browns Bay on Friday 31st October 2025.

In a dramatic, exciting final, with the result in doubt until the final two ends, Riverhead edged out a strong challenge from the Mairangi Bay Sharks.  The outcome, indeed, came down the last game between Riverhead’s Duncan Whittaker, Duane McDonald and Bruce Baker and
Mairangi Bay’s Elaine McClintock, Bruce McClintock and Barry Baillie.

The other two games had already been squared, with Mairangi’s Leon Wech, Jan Gledhill and Gordon Jenkins comfortable winners over Riverhead’s Steve Cox, Keith Wood and Doug George, but Riverhead balancing that with Tony Garelja, Peter Signal and Jeanine Browne just edging Sheryl Wellington, Allan Langley and Theresa Rogers.

However, the result and the title seemed inevitably Riverhead’s when the Whittaker trio took a 14-1 midway lead over Elaine McClintock’s side. But the McClintocks clawed their way back gradually and by the 13th of the 14 ends looked to have swung the competition Mairangi’s way.

On the 13th end they were holding four shots and had they retained the score could have been Riverhead leading by only 15-13, which would have put Mairangi ahead on shots aggregate and a potential overall win of 6-4.

But with the last bowl of the end, in his attempt to kill it, Whittaker’s bowl rebounded the jack against another and landing it wedged against one of Riverhead’s bowls to the left of the head. So instead of being ahead by just two shots, Riverhead ended up 16-9, and in a virtually unassailable position.

The semi-finals were also closely fought, with Mairangi Bay winning 8-2 over Orewa Seagulls, but with the shots just 38-37 in Mairangi’s favour.

Riverhead, helped by two 14-11 wins, also won 8-2 over Birkenhead, but again the shots were tight, just 38-34.

The narrow defeat in the final was especially hard on the trio of Wech, Gledhill and Jenkins, who went through the entire competition with a 100% record.

In the play-off-for third Birkenhead’s John Hindmarch, Mike Haggart and Jamie Chen, Nick Thomson, Jacqui Belcher and John Janssen, Wendy Jensen, Steve Hoeft and Jeni Hart had a comfortable 8-2 win over Orewa.