Poverty Bay East Coast indoor bowlers triumph at interprovincials in Hamilton

The Poverty Bay East Coast team who won Division 3 of the national interprovincial indoor bowls championships and earned promotion to Division 2 are, back (from left): Leighton Shanks, Kaye Easton (manager), David Lynn, Warren Gibb (reserve) and Keith Setter. Front: Jay Casey, Kayla Trowell, Matthew Foster, Dylan Foster and Malcolm Trowell.

Poverty Bay East Coast indoor bowls representative team continued their stellar form for the 2025 season in winning the Division 3 National Interprovincial Championship in Hamilton last weekend.

They came back from a slow start to finish 6½ points ahead of South Canterbury to win the Paterson Trophy for the first time.

Both teams earned promotion to the Division 2 competition next year.

The interprovincials, contested over four divisions, are the most demanding of the representative fixtures.

Six teams play five rounds over three days.

Having been relegated from Division 2 last year after placing fifth, PBEC were keen to build on recent success and gain promotion.

Division 3 featured PBEC, Wairarapa, Counties, Northland, Bay of Plenty and South Canterbury, with each round consisting of fours, pairs and singles games.

Poverty Bay got off to a disappointing start in the first round on Friday night. They had a loss and a draw in the fours, three wins and a draw from eight games in the singles, and a win and a draw in the four pairs games for a total of 13.5 points.

It put them fifth - 15.5 points adrift of leaders South Canterbury (29pts).

A determined effort in round 2 on Saturday saw the team collect two wins in the fours, four singles wins and three wins in the pairs. It moved them up second on 38.5 points and close the gap on South Canterbury (50).

PBEC dropped to third in round 3 on 56.5, as Counties went to second on 62.5 and South Canterbury remained top on 68.

PBEC turned up the heat in the fourth round to leap to the top of the standings. They ended day two on 84.5, just one point ahead of Counties, with and South Canterbury third on 82.

The momentum stayed with PBEC in the final round on day 3 and they extended their lead and sealed the title.

The final rankings were Poverty Bay first on 110.5, South Canterbury second on 104, Counties third on 94.5, Bay of Plenty fourth on 90.5, Northland fifth on 74 and Wairarapa sixth on 66.5.

PBEC lifted the Paterson Trophy, which prior to the creation of the interprovincials in 2023, was competed for in regional zone competitions.

All PBEC team members performed well. The top two individual performers over the interprovincials were PBEC’s Leighton Shanks with 11.5 wins and Dylan Foster with 11 wins.