Both the Whanganui men and women's representative teams were knocked out of contention for post section play at the National Intercentre Bowls Championships in Wellington last weekend.
Men's selector/coach Lindsay Wheeler said while his side played well they were not good enough against such strong opposition in their section with Canterbury, Dunedin, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and West Coast.
"This was the horror draw and certainly the most difficult section to play in," Wheeler said.
"While we won for games and very close in another five, even if games had gone our way we would have struggled to qualify. Two of the sides that qualified from our section made the semi-finals but unfortunately they drew each other.
"Canterbury won this semi-final and played North Harbour in the final and won all three disciplines."
Whanganui singles player Bernard Anderson had one win, pairs Ian Porteous and Gavin Scrivener one win and the fours Ray Park, Phil Corney, Lindsay Bourne, Tony McCrae won two.