26-year-old Brentton Donaldson claimed the Lowry Cup singles at the weekend. Photo Tetsuro MitomoHe’s been playing bowls seriously for just three years, but Brentton Donaldson didn’t let his relative inexperience stop him from claiming one of the most coveted prizes on the Mid Canterbury bowling calendar.

The 26-year-old painter, who started playing bowls because he’d played every other summer sport and wanted to try something new, took down some of the big names of the local bowls scene on his way to claiming the coveted Lowry Cup singles title on the Methven green on Saturday.

Making just his second appearance at the finals day of the longstanding competition, Donaldson said the fact there were no expectations on his own shoulders helped him keep his head throughout the day.

“I didn’t really worry too much,” Donaldson said.

“I don’t think anyone expected me to win it, so I could just get on with it and play my game and not worry.

“I managed to get the green pretty quickly, it was playing great which helped a lot too.”

To earn his place in the final, Donaldson had to stave off the challenge of two Methven players to get there, beating Bruce Harper in the second round of the day after the bye in the morning before facing an in-form Brent Mayson who had accounted for Bruce White and Craig Carter.

He then met Richard Kane in the final which was a race to 21 shots and down 16-19, Donaldson was in trouble.

He managed to pull off the comeback though and turned around that three-point deficit to claim the 21-19 victory.

“I was pretty rapt, it was a really good field of players.”

He first picked up bowls while at school, but after some gentle encouragement from his grandparents, who both play, he joined the Ashburton club three years ago and hasn’t looked back.

A fast mover in the bowls ranks, he’s a prominent figure in representative sides, but up until the weekend he hadn’t secured a major title.

“A while back I sat down with the late John “Bigsy” McLay and we talked a lot about winning a major event.

“We nutted it out and it was decided that was to be my plan, unfortunately he passed away a while after that so the win on the weekend was definitely for him.”

Still technically classed as a junior in bowling terms, Donaldson looks to have a promising career in front of him on the greens and if he can continue to produce the results like he did at the weekend, there’s no doubt that higher honours won’t be too long in coming.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 6 March 2018

AshColl Second XI bowler Ben Peek sends down a ball to a St Andrew’s College Colts XI batsman at the Ashburton Domain on Saturday. Photo supplied.Ashburton College First XI is in a good position heading into day two of its match against Riccarton High School First XI.

The two sides met at the Ashburton Domain on Saturday, with AshColl bowling out the visitors for 76 in the 32nd over.

Opening bowler Harry McMillan bowled Riccarton’s opening batsman and captain in the fourth over, with the score on 12 and wickets continued to tumble at a steady pace.

Chris Spittal took two wickets for just seven runs off his six-over spell and an excellent spell of bowling by captain Tom Middleton as Riccarton’s middle order yielded a five-wicket bag for him, with just 11 runs conceded in his six overs.

In reply, AshColl battled hard for runs as the pitch slowed throughout the day and were 101 all out in the 44th over, giving them a first innings lead of 25 runs.

Runs were spread evenly throughout the order with Devon Flannery on 12 and Isaac Bazley on 10.

A batting highlight was James Forbes’ massive six into the hockey ground – it was one of only three boundaries scored.

AshColl’s aim was to bowl at Riccarton again by the end of the day, and that plan paid dividends.

A fired-up Forbes and McMillan removed Riccarton’s opener and number three batsman for single scores, Spittal took another and Angus Jemmett pitched in to take another in the last over, leaving the visitors at 37/4.

The match resumes this Saturday.

Meanwhile, in the battle of the lower grades, St Andrew’s College Colts batted first and were all out for 148.

The best bowling for AshColl’s second XI was that of Robert McDonald with 28/3 off 10 overs, followed by Jakob Smith 29/3 off 10. AshColl was bowled out for 121, the highest scorer being Jack Soal 29, then Thomas Henderson 21.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 6 March 2018

Marlese Schoonderbeek makes her way down the athletics track at Thursday’s Ashburton College Athletics Finals. Photo Katie ToddThe felling of a 37-year-old record was the highlight of Ashburton College’s Athletics Finals Day.

The 3000-metre record for under 19 boys has stood since Bruce Gabites set a time of nine minutes and 30.1 seconds in 1981, but the freakishly talented Taonga Mbambo took care of that and then some.

On his way to victory, which also saw him wrap up the title of under 19 boys’ champion, Mbambo set a new mark of nine minutes and 24.8 seconds.

Mbambo won the division over multisport star Matthew Clough.

Sophie Adams also claimed a new Ashburton College record when she set a new shot put mark of 10.87 metres, usurping the previous best distance of Sala Bueta of 10.69 metres, set in 2015.

Adams took out overall honours in the under 16 girls’ competition too, beating Jessica Grey.

An age group up from that pair, Emma Stagg was the champion senior girl, seeing off the challenge of Emily Armstrong and Natasha Waddell, who couldn’t be split for second placing.

Lochlan Deuart won the under 16 boys’ champion title from Ben Donald, Kyle Cabangun was the under 15 boys’ champion over Phoenix Andrew, Mia Pearson beat Tara Mellish to the under 15 girls’ champion title while the junior age groups were won by Kaleb Leonard and Ella Pearson respectively.

House honours for the day went to Blue House with 209 over Green on 201, Orange with 181 and Red on 174.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 3 March 2018