Bowls Gisborne-East Coast centre men’s open triples champions are (from left) Kelly Te Miha, Gerry Kora (holding the Terry Gardiner Memorial Trophy) and skip July Hoepo of Kahutia Bowling Club.
Bowls Gisborne-East Coast centre men’s open triples champions are (from left) Kelly Te Miha, Gerry Kora (holding the Terry Gardiner Memorial Trophy) and skip July Hoepo of Kahutia Bowling Club.
First-year bowler Kelly Te Miha claimed his first centre title as July Hoepo guided his Kahutia team to victory in the Bowls Gisborne-East Coast men’s centre triples.
Hoepo (skip), Gerry Kora (director) and Te Miha (lead) beat the formidable Te Karaka trio of David File (s), Alastair Macpherson andSteve Goldsbury, 20-9, in the final of the Terry Gardiner Memorial.
Twelve teams entered the tournament, played over two days on Gisborne Bowling Club’s greens.
The Tolaga Bay club had four teams entered, Kahutia three, Poverty Bay two, and Gisborne, Te Karaka and Wairoa one team each.
Experienced hand Hoepo guided juniors Kora and Te Miha through qualifying with three wins from four games.
In knockout rounds, they came through challenging games against Murray Glassey (s), Vern Withey and Regan Tahuri (Wairoa), and Malcolm Trowell (s), Warren Gibb and Andrew Ball (Gisborne).
File’s team were top qualifiers with four wins from four games.
In knockout rounds, they beat Leighton Shanks (s), Willy Murray and Puna McRoberts (Kahutia), and Ricky Miller (s), Ben Elkington and Mark Walker (Tolaga Bay).
In the centre women’s singles, played on the same greens over the same weekend, the Poverty Bay club’s Anita Vaotuua beat Kahutia’s Dayvinia Mills 21-8 in the final to win the Brown Whānau Trophy.
Centre women’s open singles champion Anita Vaotuua, of the Poverty Bay Bowling Club, holds the Brown Whānau Trophy.
Eighteen bowlers contested the singles. Five were from the Tolaga Bay club, three were from each of Te Karaka, Gisborne, Poverty Bay and Kahutia, and one was from Wairoa.
Those who came through qualifying rounds to the knockout stages were Ginny Sherriff, Dianne Phillips and Marise Raklander (all Gisborne), Glenys Whiteman and Dayvinia Mills (both Kahutia), Anita Vaotuua (Poverty Bay), Glenda Kapene (Wairoa) and Mary Taingahue (Tolaga Bay).
Kapene and Taingahue were top qualifiers, each recording four wins from four games.
Vaotuua beat Sherriff and Kapene in knockout rounds on her way to the final, while Mills beat Taingahue and Raklander.
Mills had been severely tested by second-year bowler Raklander in a tight 21-19 semi-final.
Raklander had a good tournament. She won three games out of four in qualifying and, in the first knockout round, beat redoubtable campaigner Glenys Whiteman.
Sponsors were David File Decorators for the men’s triples and Dawson Building Co for the women’s singles.
The junior interclub tournament for the Peck Shield is being held this weekend on Te Karaka Bowling Club greens.
Play is scheduled to start at 8.30am on Sunday, preceded by a Te Karaka one-day tournament on Saturday.
