The next tournament was the Beetham Lifestyle Retirement Village Optional Triples. Included in the entry were teams from the Tolaga Bay and Te Karaka clubs.
Winners were Murray Murton (skip), Poverty Bay visitor Dawson Owen (director) and Barry Shirley (lead).
Enjoying the excellent Kahutia greens were the Poverty Bay team of Joy Davis (skip), Bruce Gledhill (director) and Win Baker (lead), who were runners-up.
Kahutia’s Irish-born Marty Ryan was in his element when the annual Jukes Carriers-sponsored St Patrick’s Day Tournament was held.
Once again, members of country clubs Te Karaka and Tolaga Bay were present, along with players from the Wairoa Bowling Club.
Poverty Bay’s Les Whittington skipped Tolaga Bay’s Mike Namana (director) and Delores Woodcock (lead) to victory.
Tolaga Bay’s Ben Elkington skipped Poverty Bay’s Otto Louw (director) and Kahutia’s Tom Riley (lead) to the runners-up position.
Players got into the spirit of the day, wearing green uniforms and enjoying Irish music on the green.
Hard-working Kahutia club committee member Ray Young was rewarded for his time and effort with a successful Triple AAA tournament followed by the Kahutia club’s awards dinner and presentation night.
Two games of three-bowl triples were played in the afternoon and winners were Andy Tamanui (skip) and Poverty Bay’s Bruce Gledhill and Tony Dobson.
Dayvinia Mills (skip), Don Oates and Poverty Bay’s Otto Louw were runners-up.
Regular visitor Les Whittington, along with Joe and Lois Wimutu, won the “lucky” prize.
The awards presentation pot luck dinner was well attended.
Two notable awards were made to club members.
The first award was made to Dayvinia Mills, who won a Bowls New Zealand national singles title in April 2018, which will be acknowledged with a display in the clubhouse.
The second award recipient was Emily Hongara, a local bowls “legend” who has made an invaluable contribution to the game here. A keen player and umpire, she has been a great mentor for younger people involved in the sport, notably Kahutia’s Lucy and Leighton Shanks.
She has also had much contact with Tairawhiti Maori Bowls and Aotearoa National Maori Bowls and was always accompanied by her late husband Jim to their tournaments.
The DB Professional Men’s Pairs, a two-day annual tournament, was held over the last weekend of March and 20 teams entered.
Competitors played three-bowl pairs and all games were limited to 10 ends.
On the first day, teams in both sections had four games each.
Top qualifiers Marcus Merrick and George Vaotuua were followed by Alastair Macpherson and Steve Goldsbury, Andy Tamanui and July Hoepo, Paul Everett and Tim Sherriff, and Steve Berezowski and Peter Ferris.
On the second day, the top 16 qualifiers played off on a one-life system. These games were also restricted to 10 ends.
Tolaga Bay Bowling Club’s Vern Marshall-Alder (skip) and Mark Walker (lead) were the eventual winners.
They had two wins and a draw on the first day, then beat Geoff Pinn and Andrew Ball in the first round of post-section play.
In the quarterfinals, Marshall-Alder and Walker beat Poverty Bay’s Bruce Gledhill (skip) and Jack Clark (lead) 9-8 in a close battle.
In the semifinals, the Tolaga Bay pair beat Gisborne’s Adam McIlroy (skip) and promising lead Liam Pinn, a Gisborne Intermediate pupil.
Up against the experienced pair of Kahutia’s Alastair Macpherson (skip) and Gisborne’s Steve Goldsbury (lead) in the final, Marshall-Alder and Walker took an early lead and maintained that advantage to win the tournament and the trophy.
Gisborne
Eighteen teams took part in the Women’s Pro Pairs held at the Gisborne Bowling Club.
On the Saturday in the Bronwyn Kay-sponsored tournament, teams played four games — pairs and two games of 2-4-2. On the Sunday they played three games.
In Section 1, the placings were: Jessie Davis-Law and Karen Pinn, 1; Glenys Whiteman and Marie Wright, 2; Joy Davis and Lesley Seymour, 3.
In Section 2, the placings were: Dayvinia Mills and Lucy Shanks, 1; Anita Vaotuua and Sheryl Jenkins, 2; Jan Powell and Kathryn Flaugere, 3.
Overall winners were Dayvinia Mills and Lucy Shanks, with six wins and a draw over the seven games.
— by Ginny Sherriff
