‘Junior’ wins centre singles

CENTRE CHAMPION: Fourth-year junior bowler Karen Pinn has won the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast centre women's singles. Picture supplied

Fourth-year junior bowler Karen Pinn has won the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast centre women's singles held on the Gisborne Bowling Club greens.

Pinn, from the Kahutia club, beat Poverty Bay's Anita Vaotuua 21-14 in the final for her first centre singles title and the Brown Whānau Trophy.

In the semifinals, Pinn had beaten Gisborne's Ginny Sherriff 21-3, while Vaotuua beat Dayvinia Mills, of Kahutia, 21-13.

Ten players entered the women's competition: Mills, Dianne Phillips and Pinn from Kahutia Bowling Club; Vaotuua, Norma Miller, Ngawai Turipa and Kathryn Flaugere from Poverty Bay; Marie Wright, Sherriff and Mary Taingahue from Gisborne; and Donna Smith from Wairoa.

On the first day, players had to play three games each, the winners being the first to 21 or whoever was ahead at the two-hour time limit.

Smith lost to Sherriff in the first round but beat Flaugere and Phillips. Sherriff beat Mills in the second round but lost to Taingahue.

Flaugere also lost her two other games, to Phillips and Mills. Phillips also beat Taingahue but lost her third game to Smith.

Mills beat Taingahue so had two wins and a loss. Despite two losses, Taingahue won her third game, against Sherriff.

Vaotuua beat Turipa in the first round and Miller in the next, but lost to Pinn in the third. Turipa lost to Pinn in the second round but beat Miller in the next.

Miller beat eventual winner Pinn in the first round but lost her next two rounds. Pinn won her second and third games, against Turipa and Vaotuua, and finished top qualifier for post-section play on the Sunday. Flaugere and Taingahue did not qualify for post-section.

The top eight players went through to post-section play with single elimination.

In the first round, Pinn beat Miller. Sherriff beat Smith but lost to Pinn in the semifinal.

Mills beat Turipa and Vaotuua beat Phillips. Vaotuua and Mills played some awesome bowls in their semifinal, but Vaotuua won by a comfortable margin.

At one stage in the final the scores were locked at 13-13. Then Pinn took four shots in one end to move ahead 17-13.

Vaotuua took a shot in the next end to make it 17-14 but Pinn responded with two shots to make it 19-14.

With two shots needed to win, Pinn held three on the next end. Vaotuua tried unsuccessfully to salvage the end, and Pinn won the game 21-14.

CENTRE CHAMPION: Fourth-year junior bowler Karen Pinn has won the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast centre women's singles.

Picture supplied