'Favourites’ tag well deserved

WINNING SKIP: Bob McIlroy was the skip of the winning masters’ open pairs combination, with Robin Jefferson playing lead. File pictures by Paul Rickard

BOB McIlroy and Robin Jefferson lived up to their favourites’ tag in the first event on the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast Centre programme for 2019.

The Gisborne Bowling Club duo won the masters’ open pairs contested on Tuesday and Wednesday on the Poverty Bay Bowling Club’s greens.

In the final they beat Poverty Bay pair Diane Christie and Tam Buckingham 21-8.

But the competition winners were almost knocked out in the semifinals, in a match tournament director Bobbie Beattie described in glowing terms.

Kahutia Bowling Club’s Glenys Whiteman and Murray Duncan had beaten clubmates Joe Wimutu and Ray Young 21-8 in the first round of post-section play, while McIlroy and Jefferson had beaten Poverty Bay’s Steve Berezowski and Bruce Ball 14-6.

Whiteman and Duncan then took their semifinal against McIlroy and Jefferson to the wire.

With the score at 13-all, an extra end was required, and the Gisborne pair had to pull out all the stops to scrape home.

Beattie said this was the match of the tournament. All four players raised their game several notches . . . the standard of bowls and the competitive nature of play were worthy of a final.

The tournament was open to bowlers over 60 years old as at September 1, 2018, and 12 pairs entered.

Competitors played on two days of 30-degree heat, which also affected Poverty Bay’s carpet green.

McIlroy and Jefferson showed good form over the two days, winning all their games in section play on Tuesday.

They and five other teams engaged in sudden-death post-section play on Wednesday.

The Christie/Buckingham and Lex Kennedy/Val McGreevy pairs, both from Poverty Bay, drew first-round post-section byes.

These two teams met in a semifinal, where Christie and Buckingham showed top form to win 17-9.

In the decider, McIlroy (skip) and Jefferson (lead) had too much experience for Christie and Buckingham, who nevertheless will have gained much from playing against these senior representative players in a final.

Gisborne Bowling Club’s Bobbie Beattie and Maurice Taylor won the consolation competition.

The Poverty Bay club and volunteers were thanked for hosting the tournament.