Bowls3Five Zone 1 & 2 Champions – Birkenhead

Birkenhead’s Millie Nathan, Chad Nathan and Mark Rumble will represent Bowls North Harbour in the zones 1 and 2 when the National Bowls3five title is decided in Auckland in May.

On Tuesday evening the Birkenhead trio repeated last season’s success by winning the Harbour final, this year against Mairangi Bay’s Kevin Cameron, Alan Telford and Josephine Baxter, and they then went one stage further than last year by winning the “near neighbour” play-off, ousting Auckland’s Mt Albert 2-0.

 It was, however, a closely fought contest, with Millie’s composure under pressure proving crucial in both matches.

The Mairangi Bay threesome playing under the name “Orcas” could be especially proud of its effort in fully extending the strong Birkenhead combination, only being ousted in a tie-breaker.  Mairangi Bay won the first set 5-2, but dropped the second 4-5. Millies last bowls in the second set drew 3rd shot.  Mairangi were holding 4 with that last bowl still to be played and the measure for fourth went to Millie’s bowl, meaning the there needed to be a tie breaker.  Then the Orcas were holding the shot in the tie-breaker, only for Millie to play a run shot to edge it out with her last bowl.

In the near neighbour playoff, Birkenhead, after winning the first set, was almost forced in another tie-breaker when after four tight ends, the scores were locked at 2-all. On the last end the lead chopped and changed until with her last bowl Millie drew the winning shot. Mt Albert disturbed the head with the last bowl of the match, but the Birkenhead bowl remained in place.
 
This continued a fine season for Millie, following her great win in the world champion of champions just before Christmas.

Congratulations to Mark Rumble, Chad Nathan and Millie.  They played so well throughout this competition and lifted their games to an even higher level in the finals.

It was an excellent tournament, too,  for the Mairangi Bay club, with five of its teams making the final 16.  Once again, the event proved popular with Harbour’s clubs, with 48 teams competing.  In the semi-finals the Orcas beat another Mairangi Bay line-up and Birkenhead beat Riverhead.