Karen Barton was quick to praise her former Melbourne-based coach, Tony Buckingham, after shining for the Hawke's Bay under-8 years women's bowls team yesterday.
On debut for the Bay, Bowls Napier's Barton beat Professional Bowls Association player Fiona Mancer 25-15 in her singles match as Hawke's Bay beat their Wairarapacounterparts 7-2 at Bowls Heretaunga. With the Bay men recording a 9-0 victory, Hawke's Bay retained the Richard Johnson Trophy with a 16-2 victory.
"That has to be highlight of my five years playing bowls. I started off slow but could not do anything wrong and Tony who coached me for four years in Melbourne before I came to the Bay in November has to take a lot of the credit," Barton said.
"Tony was a club player with 15 to 19 years experience and taught me a lot."
A Kiwi who lived in Taupo before moving to Melbourne for 15 years, Barton is a qualified bowls umpire and is training to be a coach. Yesterday she also played lead for a Hawke's Bay triples team which won 19-6 and a fours team which lost 16-9.
"My long-term goal is to represent Hawke's Bay at senior level," Barton, an information technology worker at Magiq Software, added.
Hawke's Bay women's selector Liffy Law was thrilled with her team's success as the bulk of the squad were third and fourth year players. Hawke's Bay men's selector Dave Palmer was rapt with his team's result as last year his troops required a measure on the final bowl before securing the trophy.
Host club player Gavin Keighley made a memorable debut for the Bay with a singles win, pairs win as a skip and a fours win as the No 3.
