McIlroy, Phillips win mixed pairs

MIXED PAIRS WINNERS: Boon McIlroy and Dianne Phillips won the Diane Bruce Memorial Trophy for the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast centre 2-4-2 mixed pairs. It was the third time they had won the event.Picture supplied

Boon McIlroy and Dianne Phillips won the first centre event of the season, the Diane Bruce Memorial Trophy, at Gisborne Bowling Club.

They beat Les Whittington and Jessie Davis-Law 15-12 in the 12-end final.

It was the third time McIlroy and Phillips had won the centre 2-4-2 mixed pairs event together.

Some interesting combinations were among the 22 teams entered in this Bowls Gisborne-East Coast event.

Nine teams were from Poverty Bay Bowling Club, six from Gisborne, five from Kahutia and one each from Te Karaka and Tolaga Bay.

The pairs played three games of 2-4-2 with 12 ends or a two-hour-15-minute time limit. The top 16 went through to post-section play on the Sunday with single elimination.

In the first round of post-section play, Tim and Ginny Sherriff got off to a good start against Steve Berezowski and Erin Sutherland, but Berezowski and Sutherland mounted a big comeback to win the game.

Geoff and Karen Pinn had a great game against George Vaotuua and Dayvinia Mills. On the last end Vaotuua and Mills were holding two shots when Geoff Pinn took the shot with his last bowl to win the game.

In other games, July Hoepo and Glenys Whiteman beat Diane and Don Oates, Whittington and Davis-Law beat George Tamihana and Norma Miller, Kathryn Flaugere and Andrew Ball beat Bruce Gledhill and Ngawai Turipa, McIlroy and Phillips beat Lesley Seymour and BJ Seymour, Steve and Kay Goldsbury beat Jan Powell and Barry Denham, and David Beattie and Tanya Harrison beat Joe Wimutu and Kayaar Wimutu-Muir.

In the quarterfinals, McIlroy and Phillips fell behind but mounted a big comeback to beat Flaugere and Ball.

Whittington and Davis-Law beat Hoepo and Whiteman, Berezowski and Sutherland beat Geoff and Karen Pinn, and Steve and Kay Goldsbury beat Beattie and Harrison.

In the semifinals, Whittington and Davis-Law played well to beat Berezowski and Sutherland 14-9.

On the other rink, McIlroy and Phillips played superbly and left no room for their opponents to score. They beat Steve and Kay Goldsbury 21-0

The final was an exciting contest. After 12 ends, McIlroy and Phillips were ahead 15-12 against Whittington and Davis-Law, and so secured the Diane Bruce Memorial Trophy and a centre title.

In the plate final, Gledhill and Turipa beat Tamihana and Miller.