On the mats — Indoor bowls news

BUSY BEES: It’s been a busy time for local indoor bowlers. Malcolm Trowell (back) and (from left) nephews Matthew Foster and Dylan Foster, and son Nathan Trowell with the Robieson Shield, the trophy for Gisborne’s major fours event. Picture by Liam Clayton

It’s been a busy time for local indoor bowlers, with history being made.

Malcolm Trowell skipped the youngest team to win Gisborne’s major fours event, the Robieson Open Fours.

He teamed up with his nephews Dylan Foster, 11, and Matthew Foster, 13, and son Nathan Trowell, 13, to win the final 8-6 against Jay Casey, Bryan Pulley, Journey Hihi and Lyn Kay-Allen.

Casey led the nine-end final 2-1 after two ends. On End 3, Casey’s team held six shots. Malcolm Trowell drove his last bowl at Casey’s bowls, in the hope of reducing the score. Remarkably, Trowell’s bowl trickled through to touch the kitty for shot — a seven-point turnaround.

Casey then picked up two points on End 4 and one point on End 5 to be ahead 5-2, but then Trowell’s team of youngsters collected two shots on End 6 to be only 5-4 down.

Casey’s team scored their last point on End 7.

The young ones took charge to pick up two points on the eighth end, then played some massive bowls on the last end to gain two more points after Matthew Foster, with his last bowl, drew the kitty back to an area on the mat that Casey couldn’t get at.

For Matthew and Dylan, this was their first centre title towards a silver star. The win also counted towards a gold star. For Nathan, this was his third centre title towards a silver star, and first towards a gold star. It was Malcolm Trowell’s 37th centre title, and he now holds nine gold-star titles. He needs one more to gain his gold bar for 10 titles.

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Last weekend Matthew Foster travelled to Wellington for the New Zealand under-18 singles final. Foster didn’t qualify for the sudden-death playoffs. He lost to Hutt Valley’s Jordan Keen 12-10 and Waikato’s Alex Middleton 13-7, but then beat South Canterbury’s Caleb Angow 13-9 and Auckland’s Niall Vincer 15-5.

In the plate event for non-qualifiers, Foster beat Vincer again, 13-7, in the first round. In Round 2, he defeated Northland’s Kerran Bellamy 18-8, and in the semifinal beat Nelson’s Kaleb Johnston 10-4.

In the final he was runner-up to Thames Valley’s Matthew Lansdaal, who won their game 10-4.

Foster was then selected for the North Island u18 team to play the South Island. He played lead in the pairs, winning his first game 10-6 and losing the next 11-6. His contribution helped the North Island win 10-2 (five wins out of six games).

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David Lynn and Lois Lamont have made history by winning the centre open pairs, the New Zealand local mixed pairs and most recently the Clarke Schollum Pairs, all this year.

They defeated Hawke’s Bay pair Michael Brown and Jesika Fryer 6-4 in the nine-end final of the Clarke Schollum Pairs. In the first end, Lynn was two shots down, but dead drew the shot on a difficult mat. Brown hit back to lead 3-2 after five ends. One point to Lynn on End 6 and two shots to him on End 7 took the score to 5-3.

On End 8, Brown picked up one point to close it to 5-4.

Brown held two shots, which would have been good enough to win had not Lynn, with his last bowl, taken his only option and played to perfection a very difficult shot — a short bowl up the mat on to the jack.

This was Lynn’s 136th centre title. He has won this event four times in the past five years. It was Lamont’s 59th centre title. She has won the event with Lynn three times in the past four years.

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Lucy Shanks and Hina Preddy won the centre under-21 pairs, outplaying Rachael Rickard and Kayla Trowell in the final, 11-3. The experience of Shanks showed throughout the night, and Preddy played great lead bowls.

Rickard and Trowell were the bolters of the day, turning heads when they defeated Journey Hihi and Jessie Collier 8-7 in their semifinal.

Shanks and Preddy defeated Matthew Foster and Dylan Foster 6-5 in their semifinal.

Ilminster Intermediate teams took part to prepare for the AIMS Games in Tauranga this month.