National 2-4-2 Pairs – outstanding performances

  Irene Donaldson and Matt Berry were the best performed of the many combinations with ties to North Harbour who competed at the national 2-4-2 mixed pairs championship in the Bay of Plenty.
 Donaldson, now with Manly and with three Harbour titles to her name, and Berry, last season’s national singles champion and now with Browns Bay, made the quarter-finals.

 To do so they had a meritorious win over Harbour gold star holder Adam Haywood and his Thames Valley partner, Jessie Macaw.
 But in the quarters Donaldson and Berry were beaten 4-13 by the eventual runners-up, Bay of Plenty’s Nathan Arlidge and Angela Stephen, who made the final despite losing their first qualifying games.
 The best efforts by other Harbour bowlers came from Manly’s Shaun Goldsbury and Skye Renes and Leeane Poulson, now with Takapuna, and Bart Robertson, formerly of Helensville but now in Taranaki, who made the round of 32.
 Several others qualified but were eliminated the post-section’s early rounds.
 In that they were among notable company for among the early casualties were several legendary bowlers, including Val Smith, Mandy Boyd and Gary Lawson.
 Two of the country’s most promising bowlers, Aiden Takarua and Rebecca Barker won the title impressively, beating Arlidge and Stephen in the final.