Rotorua team takes out indoor bowls trophy

Photo/File

Rotorua indoor bowls representatives have pulled out all the stops to win the Geyserland Trophy in an enthralling encounter at the Pukekohe Cosmopolitan Club.

The quadrangular, played on Saturday, is competed for annually between Rotorua, Counties, Northland and North Harbour. It comprises fours, pairs and singles and two points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw.

The Geyserland Trophy is won by the district with the most game points.

After the first session of fours, pairs and singles North Harbour led with 32 points followed by Rotorua 29, Counties 28 and Northland 23.

After the second round Counties led with 59 points, North Harbour was second with 57, followed by Rotorua 55 and Northland 53.

At this stage it was anyone's tournament to win.

The third round saw Rotorua have an excellent round of singles against North Harbour to score 22 points which put them into the lead. They then halved their pairs against Counties 8-8.

At this stage with just the last round of fours to be played Rotorua led by a single point. Rotorua were 85, Northland 84, Counties 77 and North Harbour 74.

With Rotorua and Northland playing each other in the final round of fours Rotorua needed to halve the games but won three to wrap up the trophy.

Final scores were Rotorua 91, North Harbour 86, North Harbour 80 and Counties 79.

Rotorua's Robin Porter was the player of the tournament with 15 points from a possible 18. He lost his first game of fours and then went through unbeaten with seven wins and one draw.

Results: Rotorua defeated Counties 30-26, Northland 31-25 and North Harbour 30-26. Counties beat Northland 31-25; North Harbour beat Counties 34-22 while Northland beat North Harbour 36-20.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Matthew Farquhar from the Lake Taupo Club won his Bay of Plenty Gold Star when he combined with Robin Porter, Ciaran Blackbourn and Jacque Porter to win the Bay Of Plenty Championship Fours and his fifth Bay of Plenty title at the Ngongotaha Hall on Sunday.

His previous titles are Champion of Champion Fours and Championship Fours in 2015, Championship Pairs 2016 and Championship Triples 2017.

Robin Porter won his 16th title, Jacque Porter her sixth and Blackbourn his first.

In the final over nine ends they defeated last year's mixed fours champions Tony Reynolds, Gary Hunt, Marge Taare and Gill Reynolds from the Ohope Club 12-9.

In an exciting final the scores were three all after four ends, five all after six ends and Porter led 9-5 after eight ends. On the final end Reynolds drew a fourth shot to force a deciding end. On this end the Lake Taupo combination scored three shots to clinch the title.

Eight teams contested the championship and three teams qualified for post section play. In the semi-final Reynolds defeated the past two years' champions James Schuster, Gavin Rennie, Keith Richardson and Christina Kingi from Owhata Club 12-11.

The plate event for the non qualifiers was won by Derek Owen, Gina Owen, Karen Te Tamaki and Paul Gooch from the Owhata Club.