Another title for in-form Marshall

Bowls Burton Cup - Vern Marshall

Vern Marshall has had a bumper season on the district’s bowling greens.

His latest success was as skip of the Tolaga Bay team who won the men’s title at the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast senior fours champion of champions tournament at Poverty Bay Bowling Club.

The team of Marshall (skip), Marcus Merrick (director), Ben Elkington (two)and George Tamihana (lead) won all their games.

They had a great battle in the final round against one-life opponents from Te Karaka — Leighton Shanks (skip), July Williams (director), Willie Murray (two) and John Kora (lead).

Both teams played some stunning bowls and the score was 13-all late in the piece. However, Marshall took the vital shot to win the game 14-13.

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That meant the loss of the second life for the team from Te Karaka, and a title win for Marshall’s team, with both lives intact.

Already this season, Marshall has been — in February — a member of a winning Burton Cup team for a record fifth time; in March, he was in the winning combination for the Val Smith 2-4-2 Mixed Pairs Tournament for a fourth time since 2008, this time with Ngamiro Allen; and later in March he skipped the Tolaga Bay team who won the senior men’s champion of champions triples.

In the women’s senior fours champion of champions competition, the Kahutia team of Glenys Whiteman (skip), Lucy Shanks (director), Marie Wright (two) and Ngamiro Allen (lead) played some awesome bowls.

They had a big win in the first game against the Gisborne team of Carol Hawes (skip), Ginny Sherriff (director), Kym Brown (two) and Dayvinia Mills (lead), then comfortably beat Wairoa and Te Karaka.

Gisborne beat Poverty Bay, Wairoa and Te Karaka and made it through to the final round to face Kahutia again.

In the final round, Kahutia beat the Hawes team 17-7 and did not even have to play the last end.

That meant Whiteman’s team won the senior women’s champion of champions fours title with both lives still intact.