The Kahutia Bowling Club team of (from left) July Hoepo, Liam Pinn, Kyle Pinn and skip Leighton Shanks won the J.J. Martin Memorial Cup for centre men's fours on Te Karaka Bowling Club's greens.
The Kahutia Bowling Club team of (from left) July Hoepo, Liam Pinn, Kyle Pinn and skip Leighton Shanks won the J.J. Martin Memorial Cup for centre men's fours on Te Karaka Bowling Club's greens.
A Kahutia Bowling Club team skipped by Leighton Shanks won the J.J. Martin Memorial Cup for centre men’s fours despite losing two out of three games in section play.
Shanks, Kyle Pinn, Liam Pinn and July Hoepo beat Poverty Bay Bowling Club’s Marc Alexander (skip), Hiki Kennedy, Steve Jenkins andGeorge Vaotuua 22-14 in the final.
Eight teams – two each from the Kahutia, Poverty Bay, Gisborne and Tolaga Bay clubs – entered the tournament, which was held on Te Karaka’s greens.
On the Saturday, teams had to play three games of 15 ends or two hours. All eight teams were seeded into post-section play on the Sunday.
In the first round, the Shanks four beat Gisborne’s Paul Everett (s), Tim Sherriff, Ron Nepe and Jeff Davis 34-0, but lost their next two games by one shot.
They were beaten in the second round by Poverty Bay’s Steve Berezowski (s), John Andrews, Bruce Gledhill and Jack Clark, and in the third round by Tolaga Bay’s Don Williams (s), Vern Alder, Hori Tamihana and Mike Namana.
Top seeds after the three rounds of section play were Malcom Trowell’s Gisborne team of Warren Gibb, Andrew Ball and Chris Bunyan.
Ricky Miller’s Tolaga Bay team of Boon McIlroy, Ben Elkington and Mark Walker were second seeds.
Single elimination or “sudden-death” applied to competition on the Sunday.
In the first post-section round, Alexander’s Poverty Bay team beat Williams’ Tolaga Bay.
Trowell’s team comfortably beat their Everett-skipped Gisborne clubmates, but were eliminated by Alexander in the next round.
Shanks beat Berezowski’s Poverty Bay team, but the other Kahutia team – Geoff Pinn (s), Willy Murray, Kelly Te Miha and Puna McRoberts – lost to Miller’s Tolaga Bay four.
The Miller and Shanks teams needed an extra end to separate them in the semifinal.
Kyle Pinn ran the jack into the ditch to secure two shots for the Kahutia team.
Miller’s efforts to take the shot proved fruitless and the Shanks four advanced to the final against Alexander’s crew.
The Thomas P. Snake Memorial Trophy for runners-up in the J.J. Martin Memorial for centre men’s fours went to the Poverty Bay Bowling Club team of (from left) Hiki Kennedy, George Vaotuua, skip Marc Alexander and Steve Jenkins.
In the final, the Poverty Bay four led 8-3 after six ends. Shanks picked up four shots to close it to 8-7, then levelled it 8-8 after eight ends.
On the next end, Shanks picked up seven shots to lead 15-8, and after 10 ends they were 18-8 ahead. Three more shots on the 11th made it 21-8.
Alexander picked up two shots on the 12th end and four on the 13th to reduce the deficit to 21-14.
