Poverty BayFour out of the 10 players from other city clubs won prizes at Poverty Bay Bowling Club’s progressive mixed triples tournament last Wednesday.
For each of the four games of 10 ends or 90 minutes, teams changed around their team members.
It created an ideal social mixing of players and skills.
After the scores were collated, Graham Wake — representing the sponsor, Beetham Lifestyle Village — presented two prizes for each level: leads, directors, and skips.
Chris Hewson won the leads with three game wins and 19 ends won, with the runner-up being Ray Young (three wins and 17 ends), who beat Diane Oates only on points differential.
Bruce Gledhill took the directors’ honours, also with three wins and 19 ends, narrowly easing Tony Dobson (three wins and 18 ends) into second place.
The only person to win all four games on the day was Lesley Holmes, who took the skips’ prize.
She was followed by David Holmes, with three wins and 17 ends, to complete a family double.
Welcoming entrants from other clubs certainly adds another dimension to the competitive spirit at tournaments.
Coming up
December 1 and 2: Club championships for junior pairs.
December 13: Rex Rigney Christmas Tournament and meal (club only), sponsored by Ryman Healthcare.
GisborneAndy Tamanui’s composite team were clear winners when the LJ Hooker Bellerby Cup graded fours tournament was played on Gisborne Bowling Club’s Rawiri Street greens on Saturday.
Andy, Del Tamanui, Mark Walker and Diane Murray held off all challengers to finish with four wins and a clean slate. The four are from three clubs — Kahutia, Te Karaka and Tolaga Bay.
Poverty Bay’s Jan Powell (skip), Erin Sutherland, Dave Hooper and Norma Miller were also unbeaten but the one drawn game on top of their three wins proved costly, relegating them to second place.
Four teams had three wins, which meant ends won and points for and against decided third and fourth.
A superior points differential secured third place for the composite team of Mark Bain (s), Murray Duncan, Steve Jenkins and Mike Howes over Gisborne’s Arthur Hawes (s), Ginny Sherriff, Tim Sherriff and Mike Donnelly.
Both teams were locked together on three wins and 25 ends won.
Bain had a points differential of +41, compared with +15 for Hawes.
The 18 teams and 72 players made up the largest fours field in the city in recent years, proving that graded events, which mix experienced bowlers with the not-so experienced, are still popular.
Footing it with the best
The popular sports adage “a champion team will always beat a team of champions” certainly holds true for Gisborne’s Carol Hawes (skip), Lorna Reeve, Lesley McIntosh and Poverty Bay ring-in Erin Sutherland.
The champion four were in a field of 68 teams in the Clubs New Zealand North Island Women’s Bowls Fours in Tokoroa last week and finished runners-up.
That’s a quality effort considering that the 272 bowlers in the field included many past and present New Zealand champions.
Of the 11 games played, the Hawes combo dropped only one game on their way to the final, where they gave a fighting display in their loss to a four from Tauranga South.
Singles titles on the line
The club’s singles championship will be played this weekend, and men’s and women’s titles are at stake for bowlers with less than three years’ bowls experience, less than eight years’ experience and all the rest.
Entries close at 4pm tomorrow (Thursday).