Martin Memorial Cup heads to Tolaga Bay

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

THE JJ Martin Memorial Cup for Bowls Gisborne East-Coast held the JJ Martin Memorial Cup - Open Men Fours at Te Karaka Bowling Club recently

Only nine teams entered the centre men's fours tournament this year - two teams from Kahutia, two teams from Gisborne, two teams from Poverty Bay, two teams from Tolaga Bay and one team from Te Karaka. All teams had to play three games on Saturday, 15 ends or 2 1/4 hours and the top eight teams played in the post section on Sunday.

July Hoepo (skip), Leighton Shanks, Geoff Pinn and Willy Murray of Kahutia had two wins and loss with +5 differentials to finish 5th on the ladder. Mark Bain (skip), Bruce Ball, BJ Seymour and Jeff Davis of Poverty Bay had two losses and a win with -15 differentials so they were 7th on the ladder.

Boon McIlroy (skip), Adam McIlroy and 11-year-old twin brothers Kyle and Liam Pinn of Gisborne finished 4th with two wins and a loss +20 differentials. Arthur Hawes (skip), Tim Sherriff, Rod Young and Dave Beattie from Gisborne were 6th on the ladder as they had two wins and a loss with +5 differentials.

Vern Alder (skip), Marcus Merrick, Ben Ekington and Mark Walker of Tolaga had three wins with +23 differentials to finish 2nd on the ladder. Steve Berezowski (skip), Les Whittington, John Andrews and Andrew Ball of Poverty Bay had two wins and a loss with +23 differentials so they finished 3rd on the ladder.

David File (skip), Patrick Stewart, Steve Goldsbury and Ricky Miller had three wins with +53 differentials to finish top of the ladder. George Tamihana (skip), Ben Brown, Keith Tamanui and Mike Namana of Tolaga Bay had three losses with -34 differentials and placed them at 8th place. Unfortunately, Joe Wimutu (skip), Allan Parker, P McRoberts and Ray Young of Kahutia did not qualify into the post-section on Sunday. The top eight teams had to play in single elimination or “sudden death”.

In the Post-section's first round, File's team beat Tamihana's team 24 - 6. An interesting game between McIlroy's team and Hoepo's team where they had to pay an extra end and the McIlroy's won the game 14 - 13. Unfortunately McIlroy's team lost 9 - 14 to File. Special mention to the McIlroy for being such great mentors and taking on the twin brothers on such a big tournament and both McIlroys said the youngsters played so well with some awesome shots throughout the two-days tournament.

Berezowski's team beat Hawes 13 - 10 but lost to Alder 13 - 15. Alder comfortably beat Bain 17 - 11 in the first round.

Vern Alder (skip), Marcus Merrick, Ben Ekington and Mark Walker of Tolaga Bowling Club won the J.J. Martin Memorial Cup after beating David File (skip), Patrick Stewart, Steve Goldsbury and Ricky Miller from Te Karaka Bowling Club in the final. They had a draw 12 - 12 and had to play an extra end and Tolaga ended up winning 13 - 12. File's team had to succumb to being the runners-up and received the Thomas P. Snake Memorial Trophy.