Gisborne take interclub honours

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne Bowling Club team members took the honours in the Bowls New Zealand national interclub Division 1 centre preliminary tournaments at the weekend.

Both the men's and women's Gisborne teams have qualified for the national interclub finals, which will be played in mid-April in Auckland.

The men's event was played on Te Karaka Bowling Club's green, which was in excellent condition.

A field of five teams played three rounds on Saturday and two on Sunday.

The pairs performance of skip Arthur Hawes and lead Mal Trowell, along with the singles play of Jamey Ferris, laid the foundation for the Gisborne Bowling Club's win.

Hawes and Trowell won all four of their games. They beat Kahutia 19-12, Te Karaka 15-14, Tolaga Bay 27-10 and Poverty Bay 18-10.

Ferris came to the party with singles victories over bowlers representing Poverty Bay 25-10, Tolaga Bay 25-8 and Kahutia 25-18. His only loss was to July Williams (Te Karaka). The score was 24-21 when the time-limit bell sounded.

The Gisborne four of Charlie Ure (skip), Ricky Miller, Dave Beattie and Robin Jefferson beat Kahutia 19-12 and Te Karaka 28-10, drew with Tolaga Bay 18-all and lost to Poverty Bay 11-10.

Final men's points: Gisborne 28pts, plus-91 differential; Te Karaka 21, plus-40; Tolaga Bay 19, minus-2; Kahutia 15, minus-15; Poverty Bay 6, minus-114.

With only four teams in the women's event at the Gisborne Bowling Club, the tournament was completed over three rounds on Saturday.

The home team started well with two wins and a draw in the first round.

Singles player Tanya Harrison beat Kahutia 25-5, the pair of Queenie Takurua (skip) and Dayvinia Mills won their game 25-14, and the four of Bobbie Beattie (skip), Carol Hawes, Lyn Trueman and Lesley McIntosh drew 12-all with Poverty Bay.

However, the second-round results — a 25-9 singles loss to Te Karaka, a last-end 20-19 pairs victory over Poverty Bay and a 21-10 fours win against Kahutia meant Gisborne went into the last round only two points ahead of Poverty Bay and six ahead of Kahutia.

In the third round, Tanya Harrison pulled out all the stops to defeat Poverty Bay's Joy Davis 25-22 in the singles, Takurua and Mills drew 19-all with Kahutia's Marie Wright and Paige Richter in the pairs, and the four had a comfortable 18-5 win against Te Karaka.

It meant Gisborne had won the tournament by six points.

Final women's points: Gisborne 20pts, plus-43 differential; Kahutia 14, plus-33; Poverty Bay 14, plus-27; Te Karaka 3, minus-103.

At the prize-giving, special mention was made of the performance of Te Karaka women's team. Four of the seven team members (Erica Tamanui, Hinemoa Maurirere and Barbara and Andrea Tuhi) were in their first season and playing in their first centre tournament.