Small field for first event disappointing

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

BOWLS by Trevor Mills

The first centre tournament of the 2019/2020 lawn bowls season — the Mixed 2-4-2 Pairs — will take place at the Wairoa Bowling Club this weekend.

Historically this event attracts the biggest number of teams during the season, but a number of factors have combined to produce only eight entries.

Scheduling the fixture so early in the season plus a reluctance of bowlers, especially from the city clubs, to travel to play at Wairoa has meant a possible loss of several hundred dollars to the Centre’s tournament entry revenue this season.

The small entry must also be disappointing to the Wairoa club’s greens superintendent Denis Francois and greenkeeper Wayne Bestford, who have made special efforts over several weeks to produce a playing surface to meet an acceptable standard for this Centre ?event.

The Gisborne Bowling Club has three teams entered — Centre president Steve Goldsbury and Queenie Takurua, Charlie Ure and Dayvinia Mills, and Robin Jefferson and Lyn Trueman.

Poverty Bay’s Lex Kennedy and Val McGreevy, along with Bruce Ball and Marilyn Knowles, are also in the field, with George and Anita Vaotuua completing the representation from the other Centre clubs.

Two teams from the host club Wairoa — Glenda Kapene and Tim Thompson, and Brent and Donna Smith — complete the field.

Conditions of play are on a round-robin basis, with four games to be completed on Saturday and three on Sunday. All games will be played over 10 ends with a time limit of one hour 45 minutes.