On the mats — indoor bowls news

CHAMPIONS: Centre men’s pairs indoor bowls champions John Harvey (left) and Arnold Hutchins and women’s pairs champions Hina Preddey (centre right) and Coralie Campbell-Whitehead with their trophies.Picture supplied

The Poverty Bay-East Coast Centre committee have been busy reorganising the district programme due to Covid-19.

No centre tournaments started before lockdown, so the centre reviewed the programme and fitted all centre tournaments into four months, starting with the centre women’s and men’s pairs last Sunday.

In the women’s pairs, 16-year-old Hina Preddey and Coralie Campbell-Whitehead won a round-robin competition with two wins for 36 points, upsetting odds-on favourites Marise Raklander and Lois Lamont, who had to settle for second place with two wins for 23 points.

Preddey and Campbell-Whitehead thrashed youngsters Rachael Rickard and Kayla Trowell 18-0, lost to runners-up Raklander and Lamont 13-7, but then bounced back to defeat Pauline Stone and Nanette Treloar 18-5.

Rickard and Trowell had lost their first two games but turned it on against Raklander and Lamont in the last game, causing an upset by winning 11-8 and pushing Preddey and Campbell-Whitehead into the winners’ position.

This is Preddey’s second centre title and Campbell-Whitehead’s 10th.

Three-time national champion Arnold Hutchins was all class in the centre men’s pairs, skipping John Harvey to an 8-6 win in the nine-end final against Nathan Trowell and his father Malcolm.

The Trowells had the better start, leading 4-0 after two ends, but by End 6 Hutchins had flicked a switch. He played some outstanding bowls to be level 5-5.

One point to the Trowells on End 7 took the score to 6-5. On End 8, Hutchins played the shot of the day, an upshot that missed the bowl he was trying to play on to but went narrow and moved Trowell’s bowls and the kitty. The result was that Hutchins held two shots and took a 7-6 lead.

On the last end, Malcolm Trowell held shot, but then neither he nor Harvey could get close with their other bowls.

Hutchins, though, played his first bowl up to within inches of the jack to hold shot. With Nathan Trowell unable to beat that shot-bowl with his first two bowls, Hutchins drew another shot into the head with his last.

Nathan Trowell had a stand-up run shot with his last bowl, but pushed the kitty back to a waiting Hutchins bowl to give the veteran victory.

This is Hutchins’ 73rd centre title over a 60-year bowling career.

It is Harvey’s 48th title and first men’s pairs title in an indoor bowls career spanning over 30 years.