Bowls: Strong Open field despite SH3 road closure

Grant Hassall

Numbers competing in the 121st Devon Hotel Taranaki men’s Open fours tournament remain strong despite the difficulties faced by a significant portion of visitors this year.

Organisers have been outspoken in their dislike of the decision to close SH3 over the past few days and said this had cost this year’s event “a few teams”.

Notwithstanding that, 182 quartets start the Open on Monday, from Urenui in the North, to Okato in the west and Stratford-Avon in the south. There were 180 sides that took part in 2025, and the last time there was more than 182 teams in the field was in 2015.

There will be new finalists this year, with defending champion Tauranga’s Dan Dickison not taking part. Neither is the team that Dickison beat in the final, David Walker (Tahunanui).

Of the eight players involved in last year’s final, which was resolved indoors at Paritutu, only Dave Jones takes part this time. He is domiciled in Taupo and will skip a team from that club.

Amongst the 125 visiting teams and 57 locals, there are a number of likely sides, including two who will meet at Okato on Monday – Craig De Faria (West End), a three-time champion, and the highly promising Liam Hill (Auckland). Hill’s side contains at No 3 his grandfather, Neville Hill, who has had many high placings during his regular visits to the province which he called home in 1988-90.

The trip will also be poignant for Hill senior, as his regular teammate, Mike Bradshaw, was scheduled to attend but died just prior to Christmas.

There are a number of regular, well-known visitors who could feature, including Dan Delany (Royal Oak), Peter Belliss (Aramoho), Petar Sain (Carlton Cornwall), Brendon Gibson (Johnsonville) and 2025 semifinalist Logan Amer (Johnsonville). Five teams from Australia are also entered.

In addition to De Faria, the next best Taranaki hopes are likely to be two Tower teams, headed by Scott Roberts and Mark Anderson.

But the glorious uncertainty of bowls, perhaps more than any other code, will mean that there are plenty of surprises throughout the week. It’s that attraction which sees the majority of competitors return each year in the hope of securing one of the great prizes both in New Zealand bowls and Taranaki sport.

The first four days of the Open sees all teams playing two games of 25 ends each day – supplemented by tea breaks midway through each contest.

Sides are required to win six of these eight matches in order to qualify for post section, which commences on Friday and, weather permitting, will be finalised on Sunday afternoon.