A strong final round in the pairs competition lifted the Wanganui representative team to second overall but not enough to keep a dominant Waikato from retaining the Wardlaw Trophy in Napier at the weekend. The 50th staging of the intercentre trophy was held at Napier Indoor Bowls Hall between hostsHawke's Bay, Waikato, Wanganui and Bay of Plenty. Waikato would finish well ahead on 144.5 points, followed by Wanganui (102), Bay of Plenty (101.5) and Hawke's Bay (84). Wanganui's top player was Les Heywood with seven wins.
Waikato was well served by three players getting seven wins and a draw each, while Bay of Plenty's New Zealand representative, Gina Owen, was player of the tournament with eight wins from her nine games.
Waikato led after the first session of play on Saturday and continued to build on that foundation throughout the weekend, as their strength lay in superiority during the singles matches which the other districts could not match. Wanganui would recover from being last after the first two sessions to finish strongly in the final session to tip Bay of Plenty out of second spot.
A key victory was Warren Freeman's Wanganui pairs team beating Bay of Plenty's Robin Porter, who had seven wins and a draw before the last game.
