Grant Hassall
Christmas has come early for New Plymouth’s Val McEldowney and Elaine Hodge and West End’s Bruce Colgan and Steve Walker.
Both duos rose to the top to claim the big pairs prizes in Taranaki bowls on Saturday.
McEldowney and Hodge won a nail-biting final of the Andersons Pies-sponsored women’s open pairs 19-16 over Paritutu’s Bridget Fletcher and Cathy Andrews at Hawera Park.
Colgan and Walker’s finals success came 21-8 over the two-time defending champions in the Auto City-sponsored men’s Christmas pairs, clubmates John Roberts and Craig De Faria, at Paritutu.
McEldowney and Hodge opened the scoring in the final with two singles, but it was not until the 15th head, that they regained the lead. Fletcher and Andrews led 8-2 through seven ends, before the New Plymouth team climbed back into the contest. The lead regularly changed on the home straight. A three on the penultimate end – McEldowney held the shot on the change-over with Hodge adding in two beauties – gave the New Plymouth pair a two-shot buffer. They secured the title with a single on the last end.
In the semifinals, New Plymouth came from 17-8 down to beat Opunake’s Chris Commane and Pauline Davy 21-20, while Paritutu defeated Hawera Park’s Pauline Kennedy and Kristin Stampa 23-10.
The victory was Hodge’s fourth Taranaki crown – coming 12 years after the last – and the 15th title for McEldowney. Her tally comprises a title in the junior singles, champ pairs, open fours, open singles, open pairs twice, open triples four times and the mixed pairs on five occasions.
Three massive last bowls from Walker on ends 14, 15 and 16 firmly swung the men’s pairs final to him and Colgan.
After 13 ends, they held a 10-7 lead but the contest was wide open. Two down on the 14th, a Walker drive sliced the jack to net three shots. On the next, when four down, Walker calmly drew the ace with his last delivery. Then, on the 16th, when one down, Walker ran off the jack-low shot bowl for a count of four.
Suddenly, the score had blown out to 18-7. Had the Walker magic been missing on those ends, the score would have read 14-10 to De Faria. But big bowls win tournaments and few observers could deny the consistency of Colgan and Walker in their triumph.
Colgan collected his second Taranaki title with the win and Walker his 11th.
In the semifinals, Colgan and Walker overturned an 8-1 deficit to beat Fitzroy’s Mark Hawken and Maurice Symes 21-11, while Roberts and De Faria were commanding 21-8 winners over Camron Horo and Hamish Kape (Okato).
