Local indoor bowlers travel to nationals in Ashburton

Taupo's Matthew Farquhar will compete at the National Indoor Bowls Championships. Photo / File

A small contingent of 12 Bay of Plenty indoor bowlers are in Ashburton for the Summerset National Indoor Bowls Championships.

The event is being held at the new EA Networks Centre from todayto Saturday, June 16.

Heading the list of contenders is Lake Taupō Club's junior player Matthew Farquhar who combines with another outstanding junior player in the open pairs, Aidan Zittersteijn from North Taranaki who is known nationally as a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in the lawn bowls men's pairs when he represented the Cook Islands.

In the triples, Farquhar combines as the lead with two top Auckland bowlers Alex Reed, formerly of Tauranga, and Colin Williams, both members of the champion Auckland Welch Trophy team last year.

Reed is a North Island representative, and Farquhar and Williams have been named in the North Island Academy team.

In the fours, they are joined by New Zealand representative Teri Anderson, of Waikato, who holds four national titles and needs one more to earn her gold star. Farquhar is the lead in this team.

Other Lake Taupō players Robin and Jacque Porter, who play together in the pairs, combine with Keith Wray in the triples and with Wray and Chris Guy in the fours. Robin Porter has been named as the skip of the men's triples in the North Island Academy team.

Guy won the New Zealand masters inaugural triples in 2015, when the masters division was introduced, with Stuart and Jean Stratford from Southland and they compete together again. They originally got together through Facebook to form the successful combination.

Regular attendees at the nationals are Ōhope Club's Tony Reynolds, Gary Hunt, Marge Taare and Elaine Howard.

The luck of the draw sees Farquhar's Auckland triple combination play the Ōhope triple of Reynolds, Hunt and Taare in section play.

Owhata Club's Delwyn Hughes will compete in the masters pairs with Canterbury's Bevan Matthews from the Hornby Club. Matthews won the open triples in 2005 while Hughes was runner-up in the open fours in 1984 and third-equal in the masters pairs in 2015. They combine with Michael Tierney and Donna Matthews in the open fours.

Westbrook's Karen and Pai Te Tamaki are entered in the singles and Karen will combine with her daughter Keri in the pairs. Keri is the lead in a very strong fours team entered through the host district that includes New Zealand representative Daniel French, Otago and South Island representatives Michael Lawson and Matt Markham. Keri Te Tamaki was named in the South Island Academy team as the two in the women's triple as she now resides in Dunedin.

French, Lawson and Te Tamaki were members of the team that won the North Island fours in Rotorua at the weekend.

In the open events, there are 250 singles, 150 pairs, 105 triples and 90 fours. In the masters events for players over the age of 60, there are 170 singles, 105 pairs, 55 triples and 45 fours.