Indoor Bowls: Tauranga claim Gribble Rosebowl

Tauranga Indoor Bowls representatives regained the Gribble Rosebowl from Bay of Plenty at the Rotorua Sportsdrome at the weekend, in the annual triangular between Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and Tauranga.

After the first session of play Tauranga led by three points with 45.5, ahead of Bay of Plenty (41.5) and Hawke's Bay (21).

The second session of fours, singles and pairs saw Tauranga increase their lead, including an excellent round of pairs in which they won six games to Hawke's Bay's three wins and a draw and Bay of Plenty's two wins and a draw.

After the second session Tauranga were on (94.5), ahead of Bay of Plenty (73) and Hawke's Bay (48.5).

In the third session Bay of Plenty made a small gain by scoring 30 points overall to Tauranga's 26 and Hawke's Bay's 16. The scores were Tauranga 120.5, Bay of Plenty 115 and Hawke's Bay 64.5.

In the final session, in which two rounds of pairs and one round of singles were played, Tauranga sealed the victory with another 53 points overall to Bay of Plenty's 39 and Hawke's Bay's 28. Tauranga's strength was definitely in their pairs combinations where they outplayed the other two districts.

The final scores were Tauranga 173.5, followed by Bay of Plenty with 142 and Hawke's Bay 92.5.

Player of the tournament was Robin Simmons, from Tauranga, who recorded 10 wins and one loss. Geoff Coughey and Lorraine Phipps recorded nine wins and a draw each and Roger Bartosh and Anthony Ouellet had nine wins each in an excellent all-round effort.

For Bay of Plenty, Margurrite Gerrand had seven wins and Marge Taare had six wins and two draws.

The winning Tauranga team members

Team 1: Paul Smith, Katie Tuck, Bob Abrahams, Brian Pointon
Team 2: Roger Bartosh, Robin Simmons, Anthony Ouellet, Ash Rolston
Team 3: Mike Phipps, Fiona Keegan, Joan Ramaekers, Lynne Hamilton
Team 4: Geoff Coughey, Carl Jamieson, Lorraine Phipps, Alison Cowan