Representative Quadrangular – 4 & 5 October 2025

Victory by the men’s team in Saturday’s 1 to 5 year category highlighted North Harbour’s performances in the season’s opening representative fixtures at the weekend, the annual quadrangular against Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Northland.

The one-to-five men, anchored by singles player Mark Brown winning all three of his games, pipped Auckland to finish with 18 rink points, one ahead of Auckland, with Northland on 12 and Bay of Plenty finishing the three rounds on zero.

Representative director John Walker was full of praise for Brown, describing his play as top class, with his draw bowls some of the best he had seen from a one-to-five player for many years.  Walker was pleased, too, with the overall effort, especially in edging out a formidable Auckland team. Harbour had a new team which had come together after only a few trials and practices and most of the players were new to the representative environment.

Guy Robson and Stuart Bronlund also won all three games and Lloyd Sinton and Grant Beach lost only one.

The women’s team was a little less successful, beating only Northland to finish in third place with 10 rink points, behind Auckland on 16 and Bay of Plenty on 14.

In Sunday’s open categories there was frustration for both the men’s and women’s teams as each was in a position to have finished first, only to just miss out,
Both also had the benefit of each of its singles players, Black Jack Selina Goddard and current national singles champion Matt Berry, too, in his Harbour debut after his move from Auckland, finishing unbeaten.

In the opening women’s round Harbour had started impressively against Auckland with not only Selina winning, but the pair of Wendy Jensen and Leeanne Poulson also won and the Lisa Dickson-skipped four of Elaine McClintock, Millie Nathan and Robyne Walker had a draw.  In the final round round the women’s open team only had to beat Bay of Plenty, but while Selina won her singles both the pairs and fours were lost. So Harbour had to settle for second, two behind Bay of Plenty, and just ahead of Northland on the differential.

Walker was delighted with the play of Selina, saying she had been an inspiration to the team with her presence and professionalism.

The premier men’s team also came close, thanks largely to Berry who again showed his ability at this level, but lost its match 4-2 to Bay of Plenty. The men finished on 12, the same as the Bay, but with an inferior differential, plus 4 against the Bay’s plus 23.

There were encouraging performances from both the men’s and women’s development teams. The men, however, gained only the one win over Bay of Plenty and with eight points finished behind Auckland on 12 and Northland 11.

The women’s team started with a whitewash against Northland but in the second round suffered the same fate against Bay of Plenty. A narrow third round loss to Auckland meant a close third place, on 10, just one behind Auckland and the Bay.

Walker said the selectors had been impressed by two of the leads in the men’s development team, Craig Lane and Brendon McPhail, and the by the consistency of the experienced Andy Dorrance.

In the women’s team Jan Calcott had performed well with two singles wins.

Walker’s overall assessment for the first weekend of representative play was a pass mark. For all selectors there were encouraging signs, with the main work-on the need for players to find the ability to close out tight matches, something that was essential at inter-centre level.