Baywide Sevens bowls: Tauranga Bowling Club takes regional titles

Tauranga Bowling Club's men's and women's teams have secured a memorable double in the Baywide Sevens bowls championships.

The women's side withstood a tense final round at the Tauranga South club, winning the singles and pairs matches to head Matua by one game point.

The Tauranga men won six of their nine games to finish with 18 points, five ahead of Mount Maunganui and Tauranga South.

The Tauranga club's wins means they have secured a place at the national sevens inter-club finals in Auckland, competing in mid-April.

Well-performed Angela Stephen gave Tauranga the boost they needed by beating Mount's Meredith Pottage 21-19 in the singles in the final round.

The pair of Adrienne Owen-Jones and Jocelyn Holten were impressive, locking up the victory with a 17-15 win over Mount Maunganui's Marlene Neems and Gillian Oldfield.

The Mount four skipped by Diane Hazelton beat Tauranga's Marilyn Constantine, Sue Crackett, Carolyn Tasker and Sheila Crimlis 18-8.

The Matua women, leading into the final round after a clean-sweep in the second, won the singles but dropped the pairs, 18-15, and fours, 15-8, to previous champions Ngongotahā and handed the initiative to Tauranga.

The Tauranga men's four of Dan Dickison, Steve Hughes, Ron Crimlis and Brendan Brill led the way with three wins, 20-10 over South, 18-8 against Te Puke and in the crunch match 16-11 over the Mount, skipped by Paul Anderson.

The pair of Graeme Ricketts and New Zealand Over 60s representative Lance Tasker had a surprise 17-10 loss to South in the first round but made amends by beating Te Puke 30-7 and Mount's Kevin Maxfield and John Simon 20-15.

Tauranga's singles player John O'Shea had mixed results, beating South 21-13 but losing 21-13 to Te Puke and 21-20 to Mount.

The Mount's Nick Tomsett, fresh from his equal third placing in the national open singles, continued his strong form with three wins, including coming from behind to beat fellow Bay representative O'Shea.

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Final points:
Women: Tauranga 16, Matua 15, Ngongotahā 13, Mount Maunganui 9.

Men: Tauranga 18, Mount Maunganui 13 and plus 14, Tauranga South 13 and minus 19, Te Puke 9.