Petone Junior?s bowlers get two over Tawa
By Tim O?Connell
It was a Petone Central clean sweep in the junior singles of the Wellington Champion of Champions tournament, held at Stokes Valley on March 29. Local bowlers continued their blistering run of winning form in local club action, with victory for Hutt bowlers in the 1-5 Year category reinforcing the area as a bona fide bowls stronghold. Hutt Valley High School Student Euan Wong took out the men?s junior singles title by defeating Tawa?s Nathaniel Lucas 21-16. Meanwhile, in the women?s section of competition Debbie Hanna turned on a dominant display to complete the double, beating Kay Martin-also from Tawa-21-13. The wins came after both Wong and Hanna breezed through their respective semi finals earlier on to set up showdowns against their northern suburbs opponents. With both Martin and Lucas recording similarly large victories in their own playoff matches, tough match-ups were expected for the local pair. But while remaining competitive throughout, in the end the Petone Central duo proved too strong. Spokesman for Petone Central Bowling Club Allan Dudley praised the pair?s achievements, saying the result reflected the strong influence that the younger members are having on the newly-amalgamated club. ?We do pretty well with our juniors, certainly a bit better than some of the other clubs around here anyway,? he offered. ?I think we have about 25 or 26 on our books at the moment, which is the highest number of junior members in Wellington by quite a bit.?
