On the mats indoor bowls news

Centre open singles champion John Harvey.

John Harvey is on form, winning the Poverty Bay-East Coast Centre open singles final 9-7 against 13-year-old Nathan Trowell.

In the nine-end final, Harvey was 3-2 up after three ends. On End 4, Trowell was three down on the head, but dead-drew the shot to take the score to 3-3.

On End 5, Harvey picked up one shot. On End 6, Trowell was in trouble but played into the head, opening the head up, then drew his last bowl on to the kitty for the point, making the score 4-4.

Two shots to Harvey on End 7 had him back on track, only for Trowell to play three nice draw bowls on End 8, to take the lead 7-6.

The last end was a cliff-hanger. Harvey started out best, holding one shot. Trowell went narrow. Harvey again drew into the scoring zone to hold a possible two shots.

Trowell missed changing the head with his last bowl, and with that Harvey drew another shot. A measure around the bowls indicated Harvey was holding three shots for the win.

This was Harveys 46th centre title. He won his first in 1992. It was Harvey’s 17th gold-status title.

David Lynn and Lois Lamont won the centre open pairs for the second year running.

They beat Andrew Rickard and his eight-year-old son Adam 12-5.

The score was 2-2 after two ends, but disaster struck the Rickards when they dropped six shots on End 3, one shot on End 4 and two shots on End 5 to be 11-2 down.

One point to Rickard on End 6 took the score to 11-3.

On ends 7 and 8, Rickard held one shot on each end. Lynn chose not to play his last bowl on both ends, which kept him ahead, 11-5, going into the last end.

On this end, the Rickards held four shots, but Lynn drew his fifth bowl on to the kitty to shut the Rickards out of the game.

In the semifinals, Rickard came from five behind to beat Malcolm and Nathan Trowell 8-7.

In the other semifinal, Lynn beat Arnold Hutchins and John Harvey 11-8.

This was Lamont’s 60th centre title, and she has now earned her gold bar for 15 gold titles. For Lynn, this was his 139th title, 34 of which are gold-status titles.