Good run continues

Women’s triples: Centre women's open triples sponsor Judy Blair, left, with the Blair Cup winners (from second left) Lorna Reeve, Carol Hawes (skip) and Lesley McIntosh. Picture supplied

BOWLS by Trevor Mills

SUNDAY brought more than its usual share of bowls success for the Hawes and Easton households.

Carol Hawes skipped the winners of the Gisborne-East Coast Centre women’s open triples for the Blair Cup and husband Arthur was in the winning men’s team for the Terry Gardiner Memorial Trophy.

Also in that winning men’s team was Gisborne Bowling Club secretary Bruce Easton, who reached a milestone 25th centre title in a playing career spanning over 40 years with the club.

The victories at Te Karaka Bowling Club over the weekend continued the run of fine performances by Gisborne Bowling Club members in centre events this season.

Mal Trowell (skip), Hawes and Easton won the men’s triples, while Carol Hawes (s), Lorna Reeve and Lesley McIntosh won the women’s competition to complete the double for the Gisborne club.

Entries in both events were disappointing, so round-robin formats applied. The men’s competition had eight teams and the women’s event, five.

This meant that over the two days of competition, each team played all the others, and the teams with the most game points after the last round were declared the winners.

Trowell’s team won six of their seven games in a fine performance which gave them 18 points, two more than the favourites from the host club — David File (s), Steve Goldsbury and Duncan Macpherson.

Trowell’s only defeat was a 21-8 loss to Kahutia’s Vern Marshall (s), Murray Duncan and Ray Young.

In the last round on Saturday, File drew 16-all with Gisborne’s Ricky Miller (s), Maurice Taylor and Ashli Ferris, which gave File only one game point.

However, the crucial game of the tournament was between Trowell and File on Sunday. Trowell’s 15-8 win gave him three valuable game points.

Trowell won the men’s event with 18 points; File’s team were second with 16 and Gisborne’s Charlie Ure (s), Bob McIlroy and Robin Jefferson were third with 15.

The Blair Cup women’s event was a closer contest. It culminated in a last-round winner-take-all game between the Hawes trio and another Gisborne team — Queenie Takurua (s) and juniors Kym Brown and Barbara Gibson, who gave their skip great support.

Going into the last round, Takurua held the upper hand with nine points — two ahead of Hawes.

Takurua’s three wins included two one-point victories over Gisborne’s Bobbie Beattie and Kahutia’s Betty Herring.

Hawes had accounted for clubmate Ginny Sherriff 20-11 and Herring 18 -15 but lost two valuable game points when drawing with Beattie 18-all.

However, Hawes, who — along with Reeve and McIntosh — had finished second in the Clubs NZ North Island Women’s Fours at Tokoroa, managed to get home 13-10 over Takurua and take out the centre title and the cup.

Final placings were: Hawes first with 10 points, Takurua close behind with nine and Herring third with six points.

The centre acknowledged the ongoing sponsorship that long-time bowls supporter Judy Blair had given to the centre’s women’s triples event. The Blair Cup remains one of the most sought-after prizes in local women’s bowls.