On the mats — Indoor bowls news

Mixed pairs local winners: Kayla Trowell and her brother Nathan Trowell won the Poverty Bay-East Coast final of the New Zealand Mixed Pairs for the second year in a row. They will represent Poverty Bay-East Coast at the zone final in Whakatane in late August. Picture by Rebecca Grunwell

THIRTEEN-year-old Kayla Trowell played great bowls all day for her 15-year-old brother Nathan Trowell to win the Poverty Bay-East Coast final of the New Zealand Mixed Pairs for the second year in a row, this time beating David Lynn and Marise Raklander 9-3 in the nine-end final.

The Trowells led 3-0 after two ends. On the third end, Lynn had an opportunity to play two of Trowell’s bowls out of the scoring zone for six shots, but his shot went too wide and took out only one of the bowls.

Missed opportunities cost Lynn and Raklander throughout, while the Trowells played consistently well.

After the fourth end, the score was 7-0. Lynn then picked up one shot on End 5 and two shots on End 6 to close the score to 7-3.

The Trowells hit back with one shot on the seventh end to go 8-3 up. On the eighth end, Lynn had to try to move bowls around to give him and Raklander a chance to score more than one point, but he played up into the head, killing the kitty and giving the Trowells two penalty points. The players then shook hands.

Nathan and Kayla performed at a level well above their opposition throughout the day. Other teams lacked what was needed to keep up with them.

Kayla and Nathan will represent Poverty Bay-East Coast at the New Zealand Mixed Pairs zone final in Whakatane in late August, against centre winners from Thames Valley, Waikato, Tauranga and Bay of Plenty.

This was Kayla’s second centre title and Nathan’s 12th, with Nathan having a cracker of a year already, winning three of the six centre titles up for grabs so far this season, as well as the under-18 singles.