On the mats — Indoor bowls news

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

Gisborne’s young indoor bowlers are showing up their more experienced centre members, winning several centre titles in the past 12 months.

The young winners’ form continued when 14-year-old Sian Williams won the centre women’s singles and 14-year-old Nathan Trowell won the centre men’s singles.

Williams came up against the more experienced Nanette Treloar in the women’s final and what a final it was.

Williams got off to the best of starts in the nine-end final and was ahead 7-1 after five ends.

Treloar then came back at the youngster, recording one point on End 6, three points on End 7 and one point on End 8 to trail by only one, at 7-6 .

The final end was a cliff-hanger with top-drawer bowls played by both bowlers.

Treloar picked up one shot to draw the game 7-7 and force a deciding end.

In the deciding end, Treloar held one shot, but Williams played an inch-perfect shot to run Treloar’s bowls out of the scoring zone to end up with three shots and a 10-7 win. This was Williams’s second centre title.

In the men’s final, Trowell played multiple centre title-holder David Lynn.

After four ends of the nine-end final, Trowell was ahead 3-2, but after End 6 the score was locked at 4-4. Two points to Trowell on End 7, then one shot to Lynn on End 8 took the score to 6-5 in Trowell’s favour.

On the last end, Trowell played great draw bowls, and was holding the shot.

With his last bowl, Lynn played a weight shot, but killed the last end, giving away two penalty points for killing the head, which meant Trowell was 8-5 up.

Under the rules, another end can be played if the last end of a game is killed, and Lynn decided he wanted an extra end. In that end, Lynn played consistent draw bowls and picked up three shots to force another end.

On the deciding end, Lynn got close to the kitty again, but Trowell had a back bowl to the left of the kitty. Lynn’s last bowl drew right, near the kitty, leaving Trowell having to play a inch-perfect run shot to get the kitty to his back bowl.

The young gun got down and bowled the perfect bowl to push Lynn’s shot bowl on to the kitty, with the kitty moving over to Trowell’s back bowl for the winning point, 9-8. It was Trowell’s sixth centre title.

Those who stayed behind to watch the finals saw two great finals.

Centre selector Malcolm Trowell has named a strong team — with six under-16-year-olds — to travel to Tauranga this month to contest the Hone Trophy against Tauranga, Thames Valley and King Country. They will also play King Country for the Friendship Cup.

Those selected are — Team 1: David Lynn, Bruce Easton, Lois Lamont, Nanette Treloar. Team 2: Arnold Hutchings, Bryan Pulley, Sian Williams, Dylan Foster. Team 3: Warren Gibb, Jay Casey, Matthew Foster, Hina Preddy. Team 4: Malcolm Trowell, Nathan Trowell, Akuhata Keelan, Ian Greeks. Travelling reserve: Pauleen Stone. Manager: Coralie Campbell-Whitehead.

The team will travel to Whakatane on Day 2 to play against Rotorua, Whakatane and Matamata for the Bill Moore Trophy, with play against Whakatane also counting towards the Sunshine Trophy.