Grantham & Croot take out Centre 2-4-2 Mixed Pairs Title

North Harbour’s leading bowler Tony Grantham warmed up for what could be a vintage season in his career by winning the centre’s first major title at the weekend.
With his Birkenhead club-mate Trish Croot, Grantham won the centre’s mixed pairs title, beating two relatively new bowlers, Glenfield’s David Payne and Orewa’s Judy McSweeney, 17-9 in the final at the Manly club.
It was Grantham’s 12 centre title and the second for Croot, who last season was Harbour’s women’s singles champion.
Grantham has a big season ahead as in November he will return to the Black Jacks for the Transtasman series against Australia on the Gold Coast. A top performance there could see him back on the Gold Coast next year for the Commonwealth Games.
Seventeen proved a popular score for the Grantham-Croot duo as that was their winning score in each of their three post-section games, in the quarter-final against Takapuna’s Murray and Connie Mathieson, in the semi-final against Mairangi Bay’s Leon Wech and Sheryl Wellington and again in the final.
However, it was a fine effort by Payne and McSweeney to come through to the final as Dave is still one-to-five year player & Judy just starting her 6th year.  Congratulations.