Rep News
National Intercentre 12 – 15 March 2026
Despite each making promising starts, the North Harbour men’s and women’s teams both failed to deliver at the recent national inter-centre championships held across Auckland and Harbour greens.
After Thursday’s opening day both were in leading positions in their qualifying sections, the men’s team having started with a 3-0 win over Wanganui followed by a 2-1 win over Southland. The women were similarly well placed with first-up wins by 2-1 over the Parajacks and Dunedin. But each team went into slumps on Friday’s second qualifying day, in which playing conditions were at their best with little wind.
Playing at Birkenhead, the men lost to a strong Taranaki side, with singles player Matt Berry dropping a three on the last end to lose to Dean Elgar 25-22, in pairs Nick Thompson and Neil Fisher were held to a 14-all draw, and the Brent Malcolm-skipped four of Daymon Pierson, David Eades and Brian Wilson lost 10-13.
The Taranaki four, as one small consolation, did contain two players very familiar to Harbour bowlers, Daryl Read and the multiple centre champion, formerly of Helensville, Bart Robertson.
The setback to Taranaki was compounded by a 2-1 loss to South Canterbury, with Berry in the singles Harbour’s only winner in that match and for the entire day.
With a 2-1 win in the last qualifying match over Gisborne-East Coast, the men did make post-section play, as second qualifier in the section behind Taranaki. But the quarter-finals were another disappointment, a whitewash in all three disciplines to Auckland. Berry lost his singles to Aiden Takarua 25-13, the pair suffered a 22-5 loss to Zoran Bartulovich and Adam Haywood with the four achieving the best result, a 9-11 loss.
Auckland in turn went out in the semi-final, beaten by 3-0 by Canterbury, which with a team stacked with Black Jacks and national champions, including the great Gary Lawson, then crushed Wellington in the final with another clean sweep.
The Harbour women’s team failed to make even post-section play, and considering how strong it appeared on paper this was especially disappointing. The line-up comprised a world class player in Selina Goddard, another Black Jack in Leeane Poulson, a former world champion in Millie Nathan and current national champions in Lisa Dickson and Lauren Mills. Moreover, all the players had been in excellent form in recent events, including winning national and centre titles. But even though remaining undefeated after three qualifying rounds the results had been mixed: a 14-16 loss by Millie and Leeane to the Parajacks, a 11-13 to Dunedin by the Lisa-skipped four of Lauren, Elaine McClintock and Theresa Rogers and a 24-25 loss by Selina in the singles to Northland’s Diane Strawbridge.
The slump began with a 2-1 loss to Waikato, with Selina the only winner.
That meant having to beat Wellington in the last match of the section to qualify and that resulted in a 3-0 drubbing. The Wellington women, perhaps not surprisingly, adapted much better to the blustery and challenging wind at Takapuna and won each game comfortably. Selina, unusually by her high standards, had difficulty with her weight and though overcoming a bad start to lead 11-8 after eight ends then dropped a four on the 14th end and a three on the 20th end to lose to the experienced and accomplished former Black Jack, Lisa White. Another strong combination of Helen King and Kaaren Guilford won the pairs and Dale Rayner avenged her recent defeat in the national fours to Lisa’s Takapuna by skipping Wellington in the fours to win 19-9 after 14 of the scheduled 15 ends.
One North Harbour stalwart had cause for satisfaction with the way the women’s championship unfolded. Centre life member Graham Dorreen added to his already imposing coaching CV by helping his friend and old team-mate, Tim Preston, take the previously unheralded Thames Valley women’s team to post-section, where it caused a boil-over by beating Auckland in the quarter-final. Valley did lose in the semis to Wellington, which went on to deservedly claim the title, with a 3-0 win over Bay of Plenty in the final.
1 – 5 Year OCTAGONAL
14 & 15 March 2026
Matua Bowling Club – Tauranga
North Harbour’s one-to-five women’s representatives provided the centre with some joy at the weekend, with a commendable effort at the 1 – 5 year octagonal at Tauranga.
They finished runners-up to Auckland, overcoming a poor start when in the first round they lost 3-0 to Thames Valley and were held to a draw in the second round by Counties.
However, they recovered with a 3-0 win over Waikato, followed by consecutive wins over Northland, Far North and Bay of Plenty and then, making them regret their sluggish start, a 3-0 win over Auckland. Had they shown their true form in those first two matches they clearly would have won the event.
Carol Voshaar in the singles was the outstanding individual not just for Harbour but in the entire tournament, winning six of her games, while the pairs combination Julie Chhour and Jodie Cottier, plus Jo Staines, Wendy Stein, Anne Yearbury and Julie Marshall in the fours won four.
The men’s team was a little less successful, finishing in sixth position.
Conversely, unlike the ladies, they started strongly, winning the first round against Thames Valley. But they then dropped their next matches by 1-2 margins before finishing with a 2-1 win over Northland.
Zone 1 and Zone 2 OCTAGONAL
14 & 15 February 2026
Premiers at Howick, Development at Browns Bay
Review – Battle of the Bridge – 7 December 2025
On a day where overall North Harbour’s representatives were outplayed by their Auckland counterparts, the centre’s men’s open team salvaged some distinction in the annual Battle of the Bridge, held at the Browns Bay club. Against some stiff Auckland competition, whose number included BlackJack and former North Harbour player Tony Grantham, the open’s men’s team emerged with a seven-all tie in the 14 matches across all three disciplines.
But that level was not maintained by Harbour’s remaining five sides, and the competition overall finished 56-28 in Auckland’s favour.
The women’s open team, though strong on paper, managed just three wins and a draw to finish behind Auckland 11-4, and in the development divisions Auckland prevailed 10-5 in the men’s and 9-5 in the women’s and in the one-to-five-year divisions Auckland won the men’s 11-3 and the women’s 9-5.
So the only real positive was achieved by the open men who made a particularly good start in the opening round singles. Matt Berry, Nick Thompson, Brent Malcolm, Steve Hoeft and Brian Wilson all won their games, and there was an impressive effort especially by Malcolm, who beat Grantham 21-11. David Payne also played well in this discipline, losing by just 21-20. The singles success was off-set by two losses in the fours played in the day’s intense heat on the Browns Bay carpet. But Harbour recovered to square the pairs, with Neil Fisher, fresh from winning the Auckland fours title the day before with his other club, Howick, and Thompson superb in winning their game comfortably. Much more challenging was Harbour’s second pairs win, with Daymon Pierson and David Eades surviving the thundering drives of Auckland’s Adam Haywood to win a thriller, 18-17.
Harbour’s women’s open team started slowly in dropping both four games, then picking up only two of the eight singles, those won with relative ease by Lisa Dickson and Lauren Mills. The pairs marginally improved, but the only win came from Millie Nathan and Robyne Walker, though Lisa and Theresa Rogers did pick up a draw. Harbour, of course, was missing its best player, Selina Goddard, and should she be available for the sevens later in the season will be an obvious asset.
In the development men’s competition Harbour had three singles winners in Matt Higginson, Craig Lane and David den Hertog, but lost both fours and was limited to one win and a draw in the pairs.
The women’s development team, as did their open team-mates, started with two draws in the fours, but picked up three singles wins from Judi Farkash, Jan Calcott and Judy Smith. The pairs brought wins to Judy Smith again, with Michelle Macdonald and for Helen Briant and Jeni Hart.
There were only two singles wins for the men’s one-to-five representatives, from Craig Robertson and Barry Baillie, but in the remaining disciplines there was only one further win, from the four of John Coogan, Simon Battersby, Grant Beach and Daniel Chivers.
The women’s one-to-five team had one win and a loss in the fours, two wins in the singles from Carol Voshaar and Deanne Bronlund, with these two finishing on a bright note in the pairs, with Carol and Jodie Cottier and Deanne and Anne Yearbury having wins.
Battle of the Bridge – Sunday 7 December 2025 – Browns Bay Bowling Club
Bowls North Harbour is pleased to announce our representative squads for the annual Battle of the Bridge, to be held on Sunday, 7 December.
This event is a highlight of our representative calendar, showcasing the depth of talent across our Centre and giving players the opportunity to compete with pride for North Harbour. Our selectors have confirmed strong squads across all divisions, and we look forward to seeing our teams perform at their best.
Representative squads for 2025 are as follows:
20251207 representative squads
We congratulate all selected players and thank everyone who participated in trials and made themselves available for selection. Your commitment strengthens our Centre, and we appreciate the time, effort, and enthusiasm you bring to North Harbour bowls.
The Conditions of play, including the schedule, is found at the following link: 20251207 BotBridge CoP
Representative Quadrangular – 4 & 5 October 2025
Representative Teams Launch Day – Sunday 28 September 2025
The representative team selectors will be making their selections in the coming weeks. A launch event for the selected players in all the women’s and the men’s squads is planned for Sunday 28 September 2025, at Manly Bowling Club, so keep those fingers crossed and the date free.
