Congratulations to both players on their success. Well done.
Among the other awards presented at the prize-giving were those for promising players of the year. The male winner of this award was Leighton Shanks, while the female winner was Holly McIlroy.
Both are extremely promising players with youth on their side. McIlroy is a member of the under-25 Bowls NZ squad, while Shanks was noticed by the national selectors when performing well in the u18 and u21 competitions this year.
Sport Gisborne TairawhitiThe award for services to the sport went to Emily Hongara for her contribution to umpiring and coaching, and for the leading role she played in fundraising to get Leighton and Lucy Shanks to national tournaments in Christchurch. Her efforts in this were also noticed by Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti.
Gisborne-East Coast bowlers also performed well at the New Zealand Community Trust events held in Hamilton, reaching four quarterfinals in eight events.
Of note is that the Gisborne four of Mark Walker, Ricky Miller, Jamie Ferris and skip Steve Goldsbury reached the semifinal of this event.
But the highlight for Gisborne-East Coast bowlers was the success of David File, Goldsbury and Duncan Macpherson in winning the triples event.
All parties would have made their own contributions as two-bowl triples is a tough game.
File is a hard man to beat when in the mood, and he put his side on notice going into the final. Before play started in this game, he said: “Just put your bowls as close as you can, as I plan to win this game for us.”
They defeated Elmwood, from Christchurch, 17-14 in the final. This gave File his fourth New Zealand Community Trust success.
Internal achievement awardsInternal achievement awards were also made to Whiteman and Robin Jefferson, for achieving 50 centre title wins. Special badges — with “50” standing out — were made to mark this achievement.
Whiteman has won her 52 centre titles playing out of the Riverside and Kahutia clubs. A capable bowler with an aggressive approach, she attracts good players to her teams and trusts them to perform.
Jefferson’s badge was presented to him by Trevor Mills, local custodian of bowling information and the first bowler to greet Jefferson when he visited the local greens when he arrived in Gisborne in January 1990.
Mills said that Jefferson had high standards when playing the game, aiming for perfection with each bowl he played. This had rubbed off on younger bowlers and the standard of local bowls was much higher than before his arrival.
For Jefferson, this badge was reward for the many hours he put into practice, Mills said.
Jefferson started playing bowls in Suva, Fiji, and has a Fiji badge recognising his 10 national successes there. He also has a New Zealand title to his name, from 1992 when he partnered Peter Bellis in the pairs, while his efforts at the Superbowls in 1992 took him to the world indoor finals the following year.
There are now six bowlers in New Zealand to have won 50 or more centre titles, and the Gisborne-East Coast centre has three of them — File, Whiteman and Jefferson.
A great turnout of 64 players took to the greens on the day of prize-giving. Thanks to Murray Duncan for his support.
I hope you all look to play in centre events in 2016/17.
In mid-June, we have Black Jacks coach Dave Edwards visiting Gisborne with Bowls NZ coach development manager Kaushik Patel.
It’s all about how to prepare or improve your game, and introduce new coaches and have existing coaches reaccredited.
It’s been great to provide these reports for you. See you all in the 2016/17 season.
