Bowls: Notable success on the greens

Bowls Bay of Plenty had some notable successes in its representative programme in February.

On February 17, the open reserve teams travelled to Hamilton to play in a zone 2 tournament with the top two teams progressing to Auckland to play off against the top two teams from zone 1.

The men's side struggled against stiff competition, coming third. The women's side, however, was a clear winner with singles player Jean Morris and the pair of PK Tamehana and Jasmine Merrick each winning two matches, while the four skipped by Josephine Connolly with Sue Taylor, Janet Alexander and Karen Clarke won all three matches. The team travelled to Auckland on February 24 for the playoffs, but really struggled with the greens against North Harbour. After being well down early in all three matches the Bay teams fought back before going down 17-21 in the singles, 17-18 in the pairs and 8-13 in the fours. The side rallied, however, to win all three matches against Thames Valley in the playoff for third.

The Bowls NZ intercentre tournament was in Auckland on February 21 to 24.

At the end of day one Bay of Plenty were leading their section on net score from Nelson (two New Zealand reps), but were pipped into third place on the second day equal with Wellington but 18 shots astray with Nelson winning the section.

The men's team, too, was leading their section at the end of day one, but dropped all three matches on the second morning to slip into third place. A great final round with three wins brought the team back into first place and qualification for the playoffs. The Bay faced a strong Taranaki team in the quarter-finals, progressing to the semis with wins to the fours and pairs. The team lost 2-1 in the semi-final against Manawatu.

Bay of Plenty bowler Paul Anderson lost to Ross Ellery 13-25; the pair of Phil Harris and Robbie Aitken lost to Mark Noble and Phil Skoglund 4-21, while the Bay four of Steve Beel, Graham Skellern, Stu Robertson and Tony Parkinson won 16-9.