PENNANTS – 2025 2026 Season

Clubs will be aware of the pennants competition over the last few years. They had lapsed for a time and following last season’s pennants we asked clubs for their views for the continuation of this event. The response was encouraging in that most clubs were in favour of continuing this form of competition and there were various ideas which were put forward by clubs.

Bowls North Harbour (BNH) sees the pennants competition as a special event which is contested at club level – i.e. club versus club. When considering this scenario, there were two main points which came to the fore. Firstly, it is recognised all clubs are not equal in either playing strength of ability and numbers, and not all clubs have equal player numbers of males and females. Secondly, from the existing calendar of events it was obvious there were no other weekends which the centre could introduce a further event to run over a number of weeks.

The match committee still sees this competition as a significant event to be played between clubs. It provides another pathway event for club players to represent their club while playing against players from another club. The match committee did not want the event overshadowed by the larger playing clubs entering multiple sides to the detriment of clubs with a smaller playing membership and therefore the competition is designed for clubs to field one side only.

Clubs unable to field a side of 9 players will therefore be encouraged to form a composite side made up of members from another club, all this being in the desire to have all clubs being represented. In the event there are vacant positions after entries have closed then BNH may invite a second side from a club to fill a vacancy.
As mentioned earlier the match committee identified there was difficulty for the centre to occupy further weekends for this competition. Therefore, based on the support which exists for the Cadness and Winter Cup events held on Fridays, this pennants event will also be scheduled for Fridays in the month of October. We are aware this might result in some players being unavailable but it was deemed to be the best solution for this season.

Another important component of the previous pennant series was the “home and away” factor where sides played each other at their home club plus their opposition side club. Playing the competition on this basis would extend the competition over several weeks and to achieve this would result in playing just one game a day.

The match committee having considered these factors have designed a competition along these lines –
1) All clubs be encouraged to enter one side of nine players, and preferably with a minimum of three men and three women. Where a club is unable to field a side with this combination, they may apply to the match committee for a variation;
2) Clubs unable to field a side of 9 players be encouraged to form a composite side with players from another club in their zone. The first club would be the lead club in their zone.
3) Club sides will play in zones which will minimise travelling. The anticipated zones are –
North zone – Mahurangi, Omaha, Orewa, Warkworth, Wellsford;
East zone – Browns Bay, Mairangi Bay, Manly, Northcote, Sunnybrae;
West zone – Helensville, Hobsonville, Riverhead, Waimauku;
South zone – Beach Haven, Belmont, Birkenhead, Milford, Takapuna;
4) Each zone will comprise four or five clubs and in zones with five clubs there would be a bye in each round;
5) Venues for the zones will rotate around the clubs in that zone depending on availability of venues;
6) Sides would play 2 games each day and over three playing days would play each other club in the same zone twice;
7) The final day would see the winners of each zone play off on a knockout basis to provide the winner of the competition.
As mentioned earlier, the success of this inter-club competition will depend on each club entering a side. We expect this may present challenges to some clubs, particularly on the split of male/female composition of sides. However, BNH wants to assist in any way it can to make this competition successful and look forward to hearing from clubs –
a) who would have difficulty in fielding a side with the required split of male/female members;
b) who may be able to enter a second side if any vacancies occur in the zones proposed.

Entries for this competition will be through the normal channel in BowlsHub and will close on 19th of September. After this date, we will then be able to see how the competition might be structured.

We look forward to hosting another successful inter-club competition and if clubs have any questions or comments in the meantime, please address these to the Centre Manager for attention.