Porirua claim win at men's club cup

Porirua skip Phil Todd sends down his bowl, watched by Mt Maunganui's Dean Worrall during the Moase Cup final at the Wanganui East green yesterday. Photo/Stuart Munro

The Porirua Club Inc team spoiled the party for the locals by claiming victory in the 41st Clubs New Zealand Men's Fours Outdoor Bowls tournament on the Wanganui East green yesterday afternoon.

After starting on Monday with 158 working men's club teams all vying for the Moase Cup, Porirua's Phil Todd, Steve Glavas, Garry Marment, and Joe October made it through qualifying and post section play to win their Thursday evening quarterfinal with the Pukekohe Cosmopolitan Club team.

The St Johns club team, skipped by Peter Belliss, lost their quarterfinal to a Club Mount Maunganui team, but their clubmates in Phil Corney, Mike Bishop, Ian Broderson and Selwyn Prescott beat the Mercury Bay Club to make it into the semifinals to face Porirua yesterday morning.

However, they advanced no further as Porirua won through to the final against the Club Mount Maunganui team of Dean Worrall, John Hardy, Lance Tasker and Brian Schofield.

There was still local pride on the line as Worrall, Tasker and Schofield are all former Wanganui men, but Porirua continued their hot streak by winning the 21-end Cup final 21-14.

Tournament convenor Royce Tunbridge said it has still been an excellent five days as more than 630 players were gathered in town to play and socialise.

"Transport has been bloody brilliant, there's been no complaining with the greens."

During his trophy presentations speech, Tunbridge mentioned Wanganui was likely to host the event next in 2023.

In the other tier of trophies, the Jim Dempsey Trophy was won by the Hamilton Workingmen's Club team of Les Dempster-Rivett, Tony Hart, Barry Wilcox and Michael Gray.

They defeated the Castlecliff Club team of Tony Waikato, Brendon Kenny, Graham Wakely and Andy Mathews in the final.

The Kelly Plate was won by the Wanganui East team of Robbie Robertson, Roger Neilson, Ian Munro and Cyril Evans, who defeated Manurewa Cosmopolitan's Mike Hadrup, Lindsay Weir, Pax Vermeulen, and Brian Snookes.