BNH Feature at the BNZ Champ of Champ Pairs – report by Lindsay Knight

 Browns Bay’s Neil Fisher and Sean Mulholland came agonisingly close to achieving a national title when representing North Harbour at the champion of champion pairs competition in Dunedin at the weekend.

 In the final they were edged out by a couple of locals, Keanu Darby and Roger Stevens, from the North East Valley club, by the closest possible margin.

  After the game finished at 18-all after the regulation 18 ends, Fisher and Mulholland looked to be the winners on the extra end, only for Darby to crash the jack into the ditch and for Fisher to just miss with his attempt to regain the winning shot.

 Close matches were regular events during the tournament, with Fisher and Mulholland winning their semi-final from Geraldine’s Roger Glendinning and Jared Trevathan, representing South Canterbury, by a single shot, 14-13.

 And Darby and Stevens gaining the same one-shot margin over Wanganui’s representatives from the Aramoho club, Ray Wilson and the legendary Peter Belliss, 17-16.
 Picton’s Jenny Anderson and Helen McIsaac, from the Marlborough centre, won the women’s title, beating two fine bowlers from Waikato’s Hinuera club, Debbie White and Bev Corbett in the final.

 North Harbour’s Elaine McClintock and Kerin Roberts, from the Orewa club, just missed the women’s playoffs, losing their second and third games two games narrowly, one of which was to the eventual winners, Anderson and McIsaac.