Around the greens

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Poverty Bay

THE club’s traditional first tournament of the new year was for the Graham Shield.

It was a mixed graded fours event sponsored by Evans Funeral Services played last Wednesday.

Thirty-two players braved the searing heat — over 30 degrees in the shade — to play four games of 10 ends or 90 minutes.

After three games, players took a much-needed 20-minute break to cool off.

At this stage, two teams had maximum game points with three wins.

Bruce Ball (skip), Kathy Carroll, Ian Greeks and Dusty Miller won their fourth game in grand style, winning seven of the 10 ends against strong opposition to earn the winners’ inscription on the trophy.

David and Lesley Holmes with Marilyn Knowles and Eric Craill were runners-up with three wins and one loss.

That left four teams with two wins to battle out the countback of ends won.

As a result, third place went to Jeff and Joy Davis with Dave Hooper and Trish Leach, with a margin of just one end over the other three teams.

The club’s junior singles championships — for men and women with up to eight years of bowls experience — were decided at the weekend.

Only two bowlers contested the women’s section.

Ngawai Turipa played impeccable draw bowls to win the title 21-14 and 21-5 against Norma Miller.

Both contestants produced high-class bowls, given their playing experience.

The men’s competition had six entrants playing a two-life format.

In Round 3, Luke Sanders received a bye and Dave Hooper defeated Jareth Gaskin 21-17 by scoring four shots with just one end to play. This gave him a three-shot advantage that Gaskin could not haul in.

Experienced Tam Buckingham led relatively new bowler Andrew Ball for the whole of their Round 3 match to win 21-11 and claim a bye to the potential final on Sunday.

Luke Sanders, with two lives, awaited Hooper (one life) in Round 4. Hooper went ahead 6-2 before Sanders achieved a four-shot equaliser on the eighth end. Sanders then produced another four at End 14 to jump ahead 13-9.

Although Hooper managed to score shot for shot thereafter, it was not enough to pull back the difference, which left Sanders a 21-13 winner.

The potential final between Sanders and Buckingham had a similar result — 21-13 to Sanders, who has dramatically improved from being runner-up in the under-three-years competition for the past two years.

In the final, he scored three threes and a four, which proved too much for Buckingham in the latter part of the game.

Given his smooth delivery and steady attitude, Sanders will no doubt win many titles in the future.