On the mats — Indoor bowls news

ROBIESON FOURS WINNERS: The victorious Robieson Fours team were (from left) David Lynn, skip Keith Setter, Lois Lamont and Bruce Easton. Picture by Karyn Foster

Keith Setter, David Lynn, Bruce Easton and Lois Lamont won the prestigious Robieson Fours event, beating Nathan Trowell, Matthew Foster, Malcolm Trowell and Dylan Foster 9-8 in the nine-end final.

After four ends, Setter’s team were 5-2 up. On End 5 they were holding one shot, but in that end Matthew Foster played a run shot, hitting the shot bowl and killing the end. This gave Setter’s team three penalty points for an 8-2 lead.

The game then changed. The Fosters and Trowells played great bowls to pick up one point on End 6, three points on End 7 and two points on End 8 to level the score at 8-8 going into the last end.

In that end, Trowell’s team held the point for the win, but Nathan Trowell’s decision to draw close to the kitty instead of blocking Setter’s team out of the game proved costly.

Trowell moved the kitty sideways and set up a shot for Setter, a three-time national champion.

With Setter had to push a front bowl in the head to sit on Trowell’s shot bowls, and he played it to perfection to hold shot.

Trowell played too wide with his last bowl, which meant Setter didn’t have to play his last bowl as his team had won.

This was Setter’s first Poverty Bay-East Coast title, and a gold-star-status title at that.

He travels all the way from Tauranga to play bowls in Gisborne. He likes the bowls environment in Gisborne and wants to help with junior bowls in the district.

Lynn ended a two-year drought of centre wins and has now amassed 147 centre titles, 38 of which are gold-star-status titles.

Easton, one of Poverty Bay’s indoor bowling masters, has now racked up centre title No.79 and won his gold bar for amassing 25 gold-star-status titles.

Lamont, the most decorated female bowler in Gisborne, also ended a drought of centre wins. This was her 66th centre title and her 19th gold-star-status title.