Bowls: Taradale four win $800 first prize in annual Hastings invitation tournament

Louise Fitness and her Bowls Taradale four enhanced their reputation as a "big tournament outfit" yesterday.

Skip Fitness, three Barbara Exeter, two Jo Hayes and lead Sheryl Glock won the $800 first prize in Bowls Hastings' annual Invitation Women's Fours tournament. In their first appearance at the event Fitness and co won six of their seven games to win the title by three points.

In their only defeat they were beaten by one point by the eventual runners-up, an Omarunui team skipped by Robyn Wallace.

"We had to win our last game otherwise we would have finished second by one point. We won it by one point and I didn't have to play my last bowl," Fitness said.

They were up against a Johnston Park team from Manawatu skipped by Tania Smith in their last game of the 16-team event which attracted teams from throughout the North Island.

"It was a good way to end what has been a memorable season. We'll have a good rest now and return to the greens in September," Fitness said.

Earlier in the season the quartet won their club's championship fours title and back in November they won the 96-team North Island Chartered Clubs Women's Fours title which was played in Hawke's Bay. Fitness, a Hawke's Bay rep who is in her 11th year of bowling, and Hayes won the 2016 national pairs championship.

"This weekend it was a good team effort from all of us. We're all good friends on and off the greens and it showed throughout the weekend," Fitness explained.

They intended to spend some of their prize money on a celebration dinner with their respective partners at the Taradale Club last night.

Third place went to a Levin team skipped by Dot Collis. Wallace's team beat Collis' by a points differential of 32.

Fitness and co also won the prize for the top team on Saturday. Another Bowls Taradale team skipped by Lillian Tukiri won the prize for the top team yesterday.

Two members of the New Zealand four which won bronze at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Bowls Hawke's Bay president Colleen Ferrick and Whangarei's Ann Muir, played in the tournament.