On the mats

GISBORNE WINNER: Doc Tipene won the local final of the New Zealand Henselite Indoor Bowls Singles Competition at the weekend. He will contest the New Zealand Henselite Singles finals in Wellington in September, when he will be up against bowlers from over 30 districts around the country. Picture by Paul Rickard

IT WAS Doc Tipene’s day when he won the local final of the New Zealand Henselite Indoor Bowls Singles Competition at the weekend. He beat Andrew Rickard 9-8 in the nine-end final.

Tipene had the edge on Rickard from the start, picking up four points on the first and fourth ends to be 8-2 up.

Tipene, a regular top-16 representative, then knew to play the board. This meant he kept Rickard down to just one point on ends 5 and 6 to lead 8-4 after six ends.

One more point to Tipene on End 7 put him 9-4 up.

However, on End 8 Rickard picked up three shots to close the gap to 9-7 going into the last end.

On the last end, Tipene used his skills to keep Rickard down to just one point.

To get to the final, Tipene beat Kevin Fishburn 13-7 in the semifinal.

Rickard did a Houdini act against Bryan Pulley in the other semifinal. His position seemed almost hopeless — 9-5 down going into the last end.

But Rickard picked up four shots to force a deciding end, where he picked up two more shots to book his berth in the final.

This is Tipene’s biggest win on the local indoor bowls mats and is his fourth centre title overall.

He will fly to Wellington to contest the New Zealand Henselite Singles finals in September. He will be up against bowlers from over 30 districts around New Zealand.