Bowls: Successful weekend for women's rep bowlers

Grant Hassall

The Taranaki senior women’s representative bowls side upstaged its male counterparts when it comfortably beat Whanganui at the Tower club on Saturday.

The side put on an encouraging performance in tough, blustery conditions, to overcome the visitors 8-4 in games played. But at Manaia it was the opposite where a strong Whanganui team ousted the senior Taranaki men by the same scoreline.

The women won three games from four in both of the first two rounds. Trish Howard, before being transferred into the team disciplines after lunch, posted an excellent 21-19 win over Dianne Patterson in the opening singles rubber.

Chris Commane, after being part of Maree Gadsby’s winning triple in the first round, won both singles games in the afternoon to finish the day with a perfect record.

She was not alone, with Rita Davey also achieving the feat.

Val Symes spent the day skipping the day the pair, initially with Judy Crawford and then Lesley Te Awa, and returned two wins from three.

Howard, Maree Gadsby and Alesha Quay also tasted victory twice.

The men opened brightly winning three games over Whanganui. That included Darren Goodin beating Gavin Scrivener 21-14, Bruce Colgan and Craig De Faria getting up 15-13 over Lance Tasker and Hamish Kape, and John Gray’s quartet running away 20-9 over Peter Belliss.

But only one game from eight was won thereafter – Colgan and Steve Walker in the last round of pairs.

It meant that Colgan was the only Taranaki player to win two matches on the day.

The under-eights events saw the Taranaki women prevail by an astonishing 11-1 matches. Taranaki’s superior points difference saw them win the under-eights men after both provinces finished on six wins apiece.

Meanwhile, the weather conditions on Sunday caused havoc in the majority of interclub events being played. The Summerset-sponsored men’s division one, playing at West End, managed to navigate three rounds in the drizzle.

New Plymouth, with six wins from nine, holds a slender lead in the black section from both Tower and Fitzroy, who each had five wins and one draw.

Reliable singles player Kelly Hill won all three games for New Plymouth, an effort repeated by Manaia’s promising Jason Peters and Paritutu’s Dean Elgar.

Paritutu head the amber section with eight wins and one draw, while Rahotu and West End have five wins each.

Two further rounds will be played this Sunday, with the top two teams out of each section qualifying.