Waipawa's Michael Brown was beaten in the singles final of Hawke's Bay's annual Easter tournament on Friday. Photo / Duncan Brown
Waipawa's Michael Brown was beaten in the singles final of Hawke's Bay's annual Easter tournament on Friday. Photo / Duncan Brown
Hawke's Bay indoor bowls representative Michael Brown has spent more than a decade trying to secure a berth in the singles final in the province's annual Easter tournament.
"It's always a strong field so I was pretty happy to tick that goal off," Brown said as he reflected on hiseight point loss to Tauranga's Annelise Baker in Friday's final of the 117-player singles event.
"Our tournament is the only one in the country where you get all four disciplines over four consecutive days and with a first prize of $1200 in the singles you can see why we get a strong field," Brown explained.
The 44-year-old Waipawa sickness beneficiary who started indoor bowls in 2001 pipped fellow Bay player Bruce Dalton 11-10 in his semifinal while Baker, the first woman to win the title in 10 years, beat Upper Hutt's Ashley Diamond by the same score in her semifinal.
"Neither Annelise or I qualified in the fours," Brown said referring to Saturday's fours section of the tournament which involved 34 teams. Brown skipped a team which had experienced Hawke's Bay rep Glenis Cohen at three, his father Philip Brown at two and 13-year-old Tracey Ludeman at lead.
Hawke's Bay Indoor Bowls Association president Dora Warren did the best of the host province players in the fours with a second placing in a composite team which also included Auckland's Alex Reed and the Tauranga pair of Reed's mother Debbie Reed and her partner Don Harris. They were beaten 15-2 in the final by Manawatu's Grant Harvey, Waikato's Richard Caddy, Auckland's Colin Williams and Waikato's Matthew Farquhar.
This was Harvey's 10th Hawke's Bay title and earned him a second gold star, an outstanding feat. In their respective semifinals, Harvey's team beat the Waikato quartet of David Archer, Shaun Blackbourn, James Sullivan and Joy Archer 12-8 while Reed's team beat Diamond, Brandon Fuge, Jeff Stuart and Sheree Holmes of Upper Hutt 12-9.
The 70-team pairs section of the tournament was scheduled to be completed tonight after Hawke's Bay Today goes to press and 24 triples teams will be in action tomorrow.
