BNH Triples – 1st & 2nd November 2025
Takapuna enjoyed a double success when the North Harbour triples championships were decided at the Milford club on Sunday.
Graham Skellern, John Whiteford and Ian Hardy won the Dick Bree men’s title, beating three newcomers to the centre, Chris Gore,
Dean McMurchy and George Lyddiard,, who have joined the Beach Haven club, 17-13. And Leeane Poulson, Hannah Dawson and Robyne Walker won the women’s title, beating a strong Mairangi Bay triple, Elaine McClintock, Kerin Roberts and Theresa Rogers, three of Harbour’s most decorated bowlers and multiple centre champions, 16-12 in the final.
Skellern, who has represented New Zealand at Commonwealth Games as a Para-jack, added to the fours title he won last season, Hardy added to the win he had in this
event in 2021, and for Whiteford it was his first ever centre championship. Though a useful performer at club level, Whiteford, until this tournament, has not been prominent in centre competitions. But he has a good sporting pedigree, as a former Wellington softball representative. He was not in the original lineup and only came in as a replacement for an unwell Bob Telfer, who played with Skellern in the championship winning four last season. An emotional Skellern afterwards dedicated the win to him. Skellern was full of praise for many fine bowls his front pair had played under pressure.
Poulson, of course, has come to North Harbour after winning national honours, including a national championship singles title. In skipping her team to a meritorious win she has shown the class and composure which will make her an asset to not only Takapuna but to the centre. In the middle of her team the teenaged Dawson, who is also a member of Auckland’s Howick club, showed the potential which has already impressed top coaches, while for Walker it was her second centre title. She performed well against talented leads, not only Rogers in the final but in the semifinal against Judy Smith, who led for former Black Jack Wendy Jensen, now with Birkenhead, and Jeni Hart.
Gore, McMurchy and Lyddiard were unfamiliar names to many within the centre and there was even a mistaken assumption that they had suddenly emerged as roll=up novices. A little research soon uncovered the fact that they are extremely experienced and accomplished bowlers, with impressive records in the Northland centre.
McMurchy, indeed, has been playing for 30 years, has won 17 Northland titles as well as success at national levels, including winning the
champion of champion singles. The talent of the trio was demonstrated with a 15-7 win in the quarter-finals over David Eades’ Browns Bay and 20-15 over Takapuna’s Brent Malcolm, Grant Keats and Paul Ghezzi in the semi-finals. The Northlanders became Beach Haven members when Gore, having transferred to the North Shore, joined the club.
In their quarter-final the Skellern triple beat Stewart Macdonald’s Warkworth and in the semi-final won 15-9 against Birkenhead’s Jack Huriwai, the always
exuberant Daymon Pierson and Jimmy Heath.
The women’s semi-finals had a distinct Takapuna flavour. Poulson’s side had a comfortable win over Jensen, Hart and Smith, with Wendy a Takapuna player until last season, and Jeni had a brief stint at Takapuna last season. Indeed, she and Hannah Dawson contested the club’s one-to-five year singles title.
In the other semi-final McClintock’s Mairangi Bay was forced to an extra end before ousting a gallant effort from Birkenhead’s Jacqui Belcher, Jamie Chen and Connie Mathieson. Earlier in the one quarter-final played these three had won against another tough Mairangi triple, Sheryl Wellington, Jan Gledhill and Colleen Rice.
Until this season Jacqui and Jamie had also been Takapuna members and Connie remains a member of both Takapuna and Birkenhead.
Both championships featured a high, competitive standard, as was shown by the number of distinguished bowlers who missed post-section play. In this number were the celebrated Browns Bay men’s combination of Neil Fisher, John Walker and Colin Rogan and the winning women’s team of last season, Lisa Dickson and Lauren Mills who were again with Birkenhead’s Millie Nathan.
Fisher, Walker and Rogan missed out on the shots differential to Malcolm’s Takapuna, despite winning their match 20-10. But a subsequent loss to Hobsonville’s Clinton Smith, Niraj Singh and Navind Singh proved their undoing. Dickson, Mills and Nathan, having also been held to a draw in one qualifying game, were then ousted with a single shot loss to eventual runners-up, Elaine McClintock’s Mairangi Bay.
