Report – OCTAGONAL 14 & 15 February 2026
In what was a tumultuous final day full of drama and twists and turns, North Harbour’s two premier representative teams came agonisingly close to winning the Octagonal inter-centre titles at Howick at the weekend.
The men’s team reached the seventh and last round with a narrow lead. But on a day, when because of the difficult conditions, described by one official as “brutal”, there were many rogue results. Harbour was upset 1-2 by one of the lowly teams, Counties-Manukau. Indeed, it was the latter centre’s only team win for the weekend. That meant Northland jumping into first place, with Auckland, with five match points and 15 rink points, just pipping Harbour with five match points but 12 rink points, for runners-up spot. To have led on the first day and then going into the last round, and to have had 2-1 results in every round, clearly was gutting.
The women’s team finished a close second to Auckland, making a superb late run in Sunday’s final three rounds, and finishing with a clean sweep in the sixth and seventh rounds, against Waikato and Northland. And Harbour might well have taken the title, thanks, ironically, to Thames Valley, coached by Takapuna club and Harbour centre life member, Graham Dorreen. His Valley charges almost caused a major boil-over, by holding Auckland to a draw, each side having a win, a loss and a draw.
There was a particularly outstanding effort in the women’s competition by the Lisa Dickson skipped four of Lauren Mills, Elaine McClintock and Theresa Rogers who went the entire seven rounds unbeaten, the leading of Theresa in the challenging wind being especially effective.
Leeane Poulson and Millie Nathan had only two losses in the pairs and Wendy Jensen, in the singles “hot seat,” had four losses but finished strongly on Sunday with wins in each of the final two rounds, including a notable win over Waikato’s Debbie White. This reversed her loss to that player in last season’s national final.
Despite the obvious disappointment in each team coming so close it was overall a commendable effort and an ideal preparation for next month national inter-centre events. Women’s coach John Walker believes Harbour will be very competitive, pointing out that the depth will be enhanced by the availability of Selina Goddard.
All of the men’s team would have pleased coaches, Murray Mathieson and Colin Rogan, with their performances, given the difficult condition. Matt Berry played the bulk of the singles, Neil Fisher and Nick Thompson were an impressive pair particularly on the first day and Brent Malcolm and Carlson Barnett shared skipping Daymon Pierson, Steve Hoeft and Brian Wilson in the four.
Malcolm, Pierson, Hoeft and Wilson were especially unlucky to lose their final fours game to Counties-Manukau, in the game until the final two ends when a win would have given Harbour the title.
There was more of a struggle for the two Development teams at Browns Bay, though the men deserved credit for a much-improved effort on Sunday’s final day, rallying to finish third, behind Auckland and Northland
And the women’s team also salvaged some honour on the last day. Though they went winless on the first day they won two of the final three matches, achieving a clean sweep over Waikato and a 2-1 win over Thames Valley. That meant finishing in seventh spot, leaving Thames Valley with the wooden spoon.
Auckland made it a double in the development competition, as it also won the women’s section, with Bay of Plenty second.
Both Harbour teams didn’t quite recover from a slow start in which each lost in the opening round against Bay of Plenty, losing all six matches. Most players, too, struggled with the testing wind.
The men’s 3-0 loss in the first round to the Bay was followed by a 1-2 defeat to Northland, just a draw in losing to Auckland, with the opening day’s only win, 2-1 over Waikato. But they then had three wins in the final three rounds. Craig Lane, Paul Daniels, Clinton Smith and David den Hertog finished with four wins, Willie Tonga three and Chad Nathan, Andy Dorrance and Matt Higginson each with two.
Of the women’s team Jeanine Browne, Glenda Rountree and Michelle Macdonald had three wins each, and Judy Smith, Judi Farkash and Jeni Hart two each.
The tough competition was reflected that in the winning Auckland team as a Howick club member was Sarah Childs, who this season has won two Harbour centre titles with Takapuna. And the national para representative Teri Blackbourne played for Waikato.