Bowls: Final approaching for Moeahu this weekend

Grant Hassall

Paritutu’s Jackie Moeahu will face an even more tiring task when the big Bowls Taranaki finals weekend takes place on April 26-27.

Having previously qualified for the fours and singles finals in the champion-of-champions series, Moeahu will now also contest the triples decider, too.

That came after a rain-affected weekend, where only the women’s triples finalists were found from four events.

Moeahu, leading for Briar Atkinson, with Tina Atkinson-Watt in the middle, will meet Tower’s Alethea Rowlands, Hazel Schwartfeger and Irene Taunt in the final.

Play on Saturday was transferred from West End to indoors at Paritutu when the heavens opened.

Atkinson’s trio, the firm favourites, didn’t have it all easy on the day, though. They received plenty of cheek outdoors from Anne Potaka’s Lepperton team in the last eight, before moving clear indoors.

In the semifinals, Atkinson beat Inglewood’s Jill Forbes, Loris Ropitini and the ageless Margaret McCallum 18-11. But the match was much closer than that, with Atkinson just one shot in front with four ends remaining.

Taunt’s side, after scrapping past Manaia’s Judy Fox on an extra end in the quarterfinals, dominated their semifinal, winning 22-3 over Hawera Park’s Robyn Pollock, Dawn O’Dowd and Elizabeth Edwards.

In the pairs, on Sunday at Opunake, play was abandoned mid-afternoon when the green flooded. The partially-completed semifinals will resume this Sunday.

The carried over scores sees Toni Watson and Pauline Davy (Stratford-Avon) leading Angela Rona and Marlene Malcolm (Waitara) 12-8 after nine of the 18 ends, while defending champion Val Langton and new skip Esther Ward-Campbell (Opunake) are locked at 3-all with Margy Carey and Elaine Hodge (New Plymouth) through five heads.

With more than 16 entries in both events, three rounds reduced the men’s pairs and triples to the last four stage.

A powerful quartet of duos will resolve the pairs. Christmas pairs titleholders Kevan Sellers and Dean Elgar (Paritutu) meet Levi Davis and Ross Sinclair (Opunake), last year’s runners-up. On the other side, the father-and-son pair of Ken and Hamish Kape (Okato) play brothers Peter and Bart Robertson (New Plymouth).

The surviving four sides in the men’s triples are headed by Craig Murray (Fitzroy), Cliff Rona (Waitara), Bruce Colgan (West End) and Danny O’Sullivan (Inglewood).

Like Moeahu, Colgan, too, faces a challenging finals schedule, having previously booked places in the fours and open triples finales.

All finals play, weather permitting, will take place at West End. The majority of the matches will be played on Sunday, with the balance resolved on Monday.