Eight players will come from Wairarapa and Manawatu, with bowlers vying for national competition places in Auckland in September, and the chance of a trip to Scotland, or alternatively Perth in Western Australia, depending on the extent of the cross-border bubble at the time.
All national, regional and community sport in New Zealand had been barred since the start of the Covid-19 lockdowns more than two months ago, initially through limits on the numbers of people who could attend.
Tournament convenor and Clubs Hastings and Bowls Hastings member Dave Porteous said the decision to go ahead was made just 10 days ago in a conference call with regional hosts in Hamilton and Invercargill, and Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington and New Plymouth, where other regional rounds will be played in June and July.
There was some discussion and some opposition to the tournaments being held at alert level 2, with Dunedin's tournament being deferred until later in the season, and it was decided that if all the current conditions could be met the tournaments could go ahead.
It is one of the bigger tournaments staged each year by the Hastings club, which hosted the NZPBA series finals two years ago.
A bigger tournament – the club's own four-day Webber Shield competition, in its 78th year and contested by 16 fours (a total of 64 players) was deferred from the first week of May with plans to stage the event under alert level 1 conditions later in the season.
