Lytton High student Adam Rickard was top of the class at the North Island secondary schools indoor bowls championship last weekend.
He was part of a contingent of 12 Poverty Bay East Coast junior bowlers who travelled to Tauranga for the event.
Richard won the singles title, beating topTauranga junior Matthew Spargo (Tauranga Boys’ College) 12-9 in the final.
It was a closely fought battle, with Adam ahead 10-9 leading into the final end, where he drew two great bowls to secure victory.
Jaykwan Casey (Gisborne Boys’ High) also qualified for the post-section rounds, while Jakeb Te Kani-Brown (Lytton High) edged Sean Haskins (Gisborne Boys’ High) to win the consolation title.
In the pairs, Sean Haskins and Jaykwan Casey (Gisborne Boys’ High) and Adam Rickard and Jacob Yates (Lytton High) finished third-equal.
Rickard and Yates lost their semifinal 8-7 to overall winners Spargo and Tyler Billing, while Haskins and Casey were eliminated 13-5 by Sophie Stockdill and Mikayla Edwards (Tauranga Girls’ High).
In an all-Lytton High consolation final, Hori Ngata and Mahanga Clapperton-Nahu beat Te Kani-Brown and Quaylahn Casey.
Entries were up on last year, with Poverty Bay and Tauranga having the largest number.
The event was a great build-up to junior events coming up in the next month – the Membery Pearce junior representative team event, the national junior singles and the New Zealand secondary school competition.
The White Family Pairs winners were Karyn Foster and son Matthew.
In other PBEC indoor bowls news, family and fun were the themes for the day in the White Family Pairs.
The tournament, dating back to 1996, is designed to get families playing together.
The White family donated a trophy and this year’s event was sponsored by Kevin White.
The winners were Matthew Foster and mother Karyn Foster, who beat brothers-in-law Malcolm Trowell and Mike Foster (Matthew’s dad and Karyn’s husband) in the nine-end final.
Matthew and Karyn got out to the best of starts to lead 4-0 after three ends.
Trowell and Mike Foster got their act together to level it 5-5 after six ends, then took a one-shot lead on the seventh end.
Matthew and Karyn responded with a great eighth end to score five shots and added one shot on the ninth end for an 11-6 victory.
