ON THE MATS

Treat: Bryan Pulley with his envelope for third-equal in the masters' fours. Pictures supplied

Six Poverty Bay-East Coast indoor bowlers travelled to the National Indoor Bowls Championships in Blenheim and over the nine days they were there recorded some great results on difficult mats.

In the masters' singles, Bryan Pulley was on form, reaching the semifinals before losing to Henry Pratt, of Tauranga.

Pulley qualified easily on Day 1 of the nationals, then in the sudden-death playoffs on Day 2 he beat Wairarapa bowler Kelvin Simonsen 11-9.

In the last 32, Pulley defeated Northland's Marcel Ruedi 9-5.

Pulley had a titanic battle in his last-16 game against Bush Ruahine bowler Carol Coler before winning on a deciding end, 14-13.

In the quarterfinals, Pulley beat North Taranaki bowler Barbara Batley 13-11.

Lois Lamont also qualified in the masters' event, as did Keith Setter and David Lynn in the open singles event, but all three bowlers were defeated on Day 2, early in the day.

Setter and Lynn qualified on Day 3 in the open pairs, only to be put out early on Day 4.

On Day 5, Pulley, Lamont and Nanette Treloar qualified in the masters' triples but went out straight away on Day 6 in the sudden-death playoffs.

In the open triples on Day 5, Lynn teamed up with Paul and Claire Smith, of Tauranga, to qualify. Keith Setter also qualified, in a team with Wayne and Annelies Baker, of Waikato.

On Day 6, Lynn reached the quarterfinals of the triples, while Setter played some outstanding bowls to help his Waikato team through to the semifinals of the triples before being beaten by New Zealand representatives Simon Thomas, Michael Lawson and Daniel French representing Ashburton.

Pulley, Treloar and Lamont then teamed up with Coralie Campbell-Whitehead to qualify in the masters' fours on Day 7, but they went out straight away on Day 8.

David Lynn was selected for the Northern Zone competition against the Southern Zone and his team of Wayne Baker, Karl Hughes (Taranaki) and Ross Wright (North Taranaki) won two out of their three fours games to help the Northern Zone win the event 25 points to 23.

Lamont and Treloar were selected for the Northern Masters team, but they were defeated by the Southern team.

Lynn, Pulley, Setter and Campbell-Whitehead then teamed up in the district challenge event and, for a small district, did remarkably well, getting to the quarterfinals. They beat a star-studded North Taranaki team 10 points to 6. North Taranaki had at least 25 national titles altogether as a team.

The Poverty Bay-East Coast team then beat Bay of Plenty 10-9 in the last 16 — a great result.