Bowls: Taranaki couldn't snatch trophy off Whanganui

Grant Hassall

Taranaki largely dominated Whanganui in the representative bowls fixture in south Taranaki on Saturday, winning three of the four sections comfortably.

But the senior men still could no wrestle the Doug Trott Trophy off the visitors.

The senior women, despite a poor third and final round, prevailed eight matches to four, while both under-eight sides were emphatic 9-3 victors.

However, the senior men were nosed out by four differential points, after both sides finished on six wins.

The outcome was in doubt until the final bowl of the day, when Whanganui fours skip Sean Johnson drove off a Taranaki counter to give his team a 12-11 win over Camron Horo’s quartet.

Sentimentally, on a day when moments of silence were observed for both former NZ selector Bruce Malcolm and tough Whanganui stalwart Bill Gannon, who both died just prior to the fixture, it was appropriate that Johnson should have the ultimate say.

While he did drop his opening fours game, he showed his class in a 21-9 second-round round singles win over Bart Robertson.

The skill that Malcolm recognised with international honours and that Gannon had encountered as an opponent and team-mate is very much still alive.

Dean Elgar, after two victories in the middle of the fours, scored a 21-18 third-round singles win over Gavin Scrivener which concluded on an immaculate last end.

Elgar was the only senior player from either side to win all three.

Five Taranaki men won twice.

Briar Atkinson cruised through her three singles games in the senior women’s section at Manaia, winning 21-5, 21-2 and 21-10.

The women won seven of the eight games from the firs two sessions, but only Atkinson completed the perfect record in the last.

Trish Howard, Rhonda Adams, Irene Taunt, Rita Davey and Amanda Crehan all had two wins.

In the under-eight sections, Ashleigh Megaw, Colleen Hodges, Blair Clark and Luca Dobson won all three, while Joel Chard and Peter van Dyk each won two-from-two.

Meanwhile, Kurt Smith gave a good account at the World Cup in Malaysia, winning a bronze medal in the para mixed pairs with Teri Blackbourn.

They won four games from five to top their section, but fell to Australia in the semifinals.

Smith was competitive in the singles, but with just two wins from five games, he failed to advance to the playoffs.