Stirring challenge to bowlers

The national lawn bowls championships got off to a festive start on Saturday with a parade through Avarua township.

Just over 100 bowlers paraded through town lead by the Cook Islands Bowling Association development squad.

Teams from Australia and New Zealand including a New Zealand Aitutaki side have come to Rarotonga to compete against Rarotonga based teams namely Puaikura, Atiu, Manihiki, Nukuroa, Rarotonga, Parekura, Rakahanga and Mauke.

After the march through Avarua, the teams gathered on the Rarotonga Bowling Club greens in Parekura for the opening ceremony.

Speeches were made by Minister of Sport Apii Piho and Cook Islands National Sports and Olympic Committee president Sir Geoffrey Henry.

But it was Queen’s Representative and Rarotonga bowls team member Sir Frederick Goodwin who delivered a challenging address.

He reminded players that national selectors would be out to watch their performance for the Team Cook Islands bowls team to attend the Commonwealth Games in Delhi this coming October.

He said that he too would be wanting to impress the selectors.

And to do so he said he would adopt the ‘killer instinct’ and not trust the smiling faces of his opponents.

He challenged other teams and said that his Rarotonga team were going to outsmart, outwit and outclass them all.

This brought on a cheer from his team and much laughter from everyone else.

“We are going to outclass you all in every end and in every delivery we take,” said Sir Frederick.

“We are going to annihilate our opponents and we the RBC club will be feared.”

He predicted the tournament would be a ‘cracker’ and a headache for selectors.

After Sir Frederick declared the tournament open, the junior development squad took to the green to demonstrate the bowls skills they’ve been learning over the past few months.

The tournament will run for the next two weeks at the Parekura greens.