Young bowlers make their mark

CHAMPION PAIR: Dylan Foster (left) and elder brother Matthew won the centre open pairs. Dylan also won the zone final of the New Zealand Henselite Singles.

Dylan Foster, Nathan Trowell and Kayla Trowell were in top indoor bowls form last weekend.

Foster won the zone final of the New Zealand Henselite Singles and the Trowell siblings won the zone final of the New Zealand mixed pairs in Whakatane.

Foster defeated Thames Valley's Sandra Curd in Game 1, then showed real class to beat New Zealand representative Teri Blackbourn in Game 2.

Tauranga's Geoff Coughey was next on Foster's hit list. With Foster holding shot for the win, Coughey — a former North Island rep and past winner of the NZ Henselite singles — had last bowl.

His bowl had too much weight and rolled past the head, which meant Foster had won three games in a row.

In Foster's last game, things didn't go too well . . . the Bay Of Plenty's Margurrite Gerrand defeated him.

Foster then had to wait and see who won the game between the other two bowlers who could win the event — Blackbourn and Coughey. Whoever won that game would have won the tournament with three wins and more ends won than Foster.

Blackbourn, three points down on the board, had a slim chance of picking up four shots on the last end. She decided to draw her last bowl for only three shots, which meant she had a draw with Coughey, and Foster was the only player with three wins.

In the mixed pairs, Kayla Trowell was on form, playing great draw bowls for elder brother Nathan.

They defeated Thames Valley's Theunis Miedema and Mariah Kere-Meneta easily in Game 1 then defeated current NZ pairs champion skip Alex Reed and his pairs partner Tessa Farley before beating Tauranga's Anthony Ouellet and former NZ rep Fiona Keegan in Game 3.

Game 4, against Bay of Plenty pair Dylan Greyvenstein and Shelley Forster, was close until the last two ends, when the Trowells turned it on. Their record of four wins from four games won the event for them.

Foster and the Trowells now fly to Wellington to contest the New Zealand finals in September. Going by the sensational way all three of them are playing, they will be hard to beat.

Dylan Foster teamed up with elder brother Matthew on the local mats and won the centre open pairs final against Andrew Rickard and Jay Casey, 9-6.

The Foster brothers were in control throughout the day, winning all four of their games to qualify.

They beat Warren Madoc and Warren Edlin 10-8 in the semifinal to reach the final.

Matthew and Dylan now have nine centre titles each.