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IT'S been a busy time for local indoor bowlers lately, with 15 bowlers competing in the New Zealand Indoor Bowls Championships in Mt Maunganui.
In the open singles, David Lynn qualified with four wins from his four games, but after a great start in the sudden-death playoffs he lost 9-8 to Mike Bryant (Bay of Plenty) on a deciding end.
In the master singles, Kevin Fishburn qualified then lost 10-8 to New Plymouth’s Andrew Brunton, who went on to win the title.
In the open pairs, Lynn teamed up with Lois Lamont to qualify with three wins from their four games. They then defeated Wanganui’s Brendon Kenny and Anne Kendrick 10 –4, but lost 10-6 to former New Zealand representative Lyn Brittain of Northland and Lesley Monk of Waikato.
In the master pairs, Bryan Pulley and Pauline Stone qualified and reached the last 32 teams before losing to a Waikato team skipped by Roslyn Irwin.
No Gisborne teams qualified in the trios.
In the open fours, Lynn and Lamont teamed up with North Island women’s representative Lisa Gould of Hutt Valley and North Island Academy representative Amber McNally to qualify, before losing 8-6 to a Whanganui team.
No Gisborne teams qualified in the master fours event.
Lamont, selected in the North Island Academy team, teamed up with Tauranga’s Debbie Reed. They combined perfectly to easily defeat their South Island opposition, Jean McKenzie (Nelson) and Fiona Prosser (Golden Bay), with three wins from three games.
Lamont led superbly throughout the North/South competition to help the North Island team win the event 28 points to 20.
It was great to see 15 Gisborne players travel to the nationals, which is a big step up from playing local bowls in the district.
Last weekend the New Zealand mixed fours and pairs zone finals were contested in Whakatane.
In the fours, Warren Gibb, Lyn Kay-Allen, David Lynn (replacement for Bruce Easton) and Lois Lamont started the day well with two wins against Thames Valley and Bay of Plenty.
Rules stated that Lynn, being a replacement, could play only lead or two in the first two games, then become a normal team member after the two games, and the team could change around.
After the two games, the team changed around so that Gibb was skipping, Lynn was at three, Kay-Allen was at two and Lamont was lead.
But they lost to the Tauranga hot favourites and eventual zone winners, who had two New Zealand reps, one former NZ rep and one North Island rep in their team.
The Gibbs team then lost to a strong Waikato team in their last game, to be placed a creditable third.
In the mixed pairs zone final, Kevin Fishburn and Coralie Campbell-Whitehead teamed up and also finished a creditable third.
First and second placegetters had to be decided on a countback of points, after countbacks of wins and ends won failed to separate Tauranga and Thames Valley. Tauranga were the winners on countback by four points.