Wanganui goes fourth

Both the Bowls Wanganui teams finished back in the pack for fourth place at the annual Hexagonal bowls competition in Palmerston North on Sunday.

The two-day event sees the representative teams of Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Kapiti Coast, Wellington and Taranaki compete across five rounds on singles, pairs and fours games.

Bowls Wanganui introduced some new faces into their 10-member me'ns and women's teams because of players being unavailable, bringing up some others from the under 8 squad.

Men's manager Mike Morgan said they did not know how the team would perform against teams from the other centres who have had more competition play.

"After four of the five rounds we held third place on 24 points.

"However with only one point - out of a possible 10 - in the last round, we finished up in fourth place."

"There were some very close games and with a little luck we could have finished with a better result.

Coach/selector Lindsay Wheeler said the team had started well on Saturday.

"We won our share of games - two and an half in the first round, then we got three and then we got four.

"Then we fell in a heap."

The only bright spot was the matchup with Wellington was also for the annual Simonson Trophy, which Wanganui would win.

Singles player Bernard Anderson had the best weekend with three wins and a draw from his five games, while the Ray Park skipped fours team got three wins.

It wasn't a good result in the pairs for the Ian Porteous and Lindsay Bourne skipped teams, similar to the other single in Peter Cassidy, who between them managed just five wins and a draw from 15 games.

Home team Manawatu showed how its done as they came from fourth place entering the final round to win all their games and take out the men's competition.

It was a similar scoreline in the women's draw, as the team finished on 23 points to come in fourth spot.

Dianne Patterson and Lesley Bourke were the singles players, while Reen Stratford and Anne Loveridge skipped the pairs, with the fours team led by Marilyn Constatine.

Kapiti Coast dominated the section with 36 points, ahead of Hawke's Bay and Wellington for the minor placings.

Final scores

Men: Manawatu (31), Wellington 30 (+77), Hawkes Bay 30 (+35), Wanganui 24, Taranaki 20, Kapiti Coast 15.

Women: Kapiti Coast 36, Hawke's Bay 28, Wellington 27, Wanganui 23, Manawatu 21, Taranaki 15.