Gisborne-East Coast clubs have two teams at nationals

Kahutia Bowling Club members (from left) Leighton Shanks, Liam Pinn, Kyle Pinn and July Hoepo are competing in the national open men's fours on Bay of Plenty greens.

Bowls Gisborne-East Coast are being represented by two teams at the national fours and mixed pairs, which started today (Thursday).

Games are being played across multiple venues in the Bay of Plenty centre. Men’s and women’s open fours are being contested from today to Sunday, and mixed pairs run from Monday to Thursday next week.

Gisborne-East Coast centre’s Kahutia and Te Karaka bowling clubs each have a team in the men’s fours. Qualifying rounds started today and ends tomorrow.

The Kahutia team of Leighton Shanks, Kyle Pinn, Liam Pinn and July Hoepo are in Section 7 and will play six rounds of qualifying across two venues in their first appearance as a team in the national open men’s fours.

They are playing at Rewa Bowling Club, Matamata, on the first day and Ngongotaha Bowling Club on the second.

David File, Adam Blucher, Shaun Goldsbury and Paddy Stewart are wearing Te Karaka colours in their Section 1 qualifying games.

They are playing at Bowls Mount Maunganui on the first day and Rotorua East Bowling Club on the second.

All four Kahutia players have been in fine form on local greens, with Hoepo a runaway leader for centre wins this season.

David File is in the 90s for centre titles, while Stewart has helped him achieve some of his more recent successes.

Goldsbury is based in Auckland but plays for the Gisborne-East Coast representative team, while Blucher is an up-and-coming Auckland bowler recruited by Goldsbury to fill the gap left by his father Steve, who is sticking to one-day bowls for a while.

Blucher is the youngest bowler to be part of a title-winning team in the Taranaki Open Fours. He was 20 years and 169 days old when his four won the title last month.

Also last month, Blucher was a semi-finalist in the national singles and reached the last 16 in the national pairs, both held in Christchurch.