Fosters win mixed pairs at Gisborne Cossie Club, qualify for zone final

Poverty Bay-East Coast centre winners in the New Zealand mixed pairs indoor bowls competition were mother and son Karyn and Dylan Foster. They will compete at the zone final in Whakatane in July.

Mother and son Karyn and Dylan Foster continued a purple patch of form to win the Poverty Bay-East Coast Indoor Bowls Centre tournament for the New Zealand mixed pairs at the Cosmopolitan Club last weekend.

Twelve teams entered, five qualifying for post-section play after some outstanding bowls – and a special mention for junior bowlers – in the preliminary rounds.

In a playoff for a semi-final place, Dylan and Karyn Foster beat David Lynn and Marise Raklander 13-4.

In the semi-finals, Doc Tipene and Pauline Stone beat junior pair Jaykwan Casey and Sophie Haskins 6-4, while the Fosters defeated Andrew Rickard and Tina Smith 11-4.

In the final, Dylan and Karyn Foster stormed past Tipene and Stone to win 13-4.

It was Dylan Foster’s 26th centre title and Karyn Foster’s third.

The pair will represent Poverty Bay at the zone final in Whakatāne in July against pairs from Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Waikato and Thames Valley.

Dylan Foster also featured in the Hawke’s Bay Easter Tournament, winning the pairs title with his Auckland-based brother Matthew.

Dylan and Matthew teamed up with father and son Paul (Tauranga) and Nash Smith (Waikato) to finish runners-up in the fours, while their father Mike Foster was third-equal in the triples with Paul and Nash Smith, and third-equal in the fours with Shaun Blackbourn (Waikato), James Sullivan (Hawke’s Bay) and Jeremy Markham (Canterbury).