Grant Hassall
Taranaki bowlers are riding high with a number of achievements in recent days.
At the Bowls New Zealand annual meeting on Saturday, Paritutu’s Briar Atkinson was named as the country’s Emerging Player of the year.
Atkinson’s award follows her success representing the NZ Under-26 side and winning the national champion-of-champions singles in July.
The new season promises much for her, too. In November she will attend the Hong Kong international event, having been invited by Black Jack Selina Goddard. The duo will combine in the pairs.
Following the success of the women’s side at the World Championships earlier in the month, Atkinson may struggle to break into the top-five senior side for February’s trans-Tasman. But she should be a shoe-in for the development team.
National coach Michael Kernaghan said that Atkinson is a “huge talent”.
“She’s very receptive, she listens well and she takes on board new ideas. She’s a real open book. And what’s really great, she’s keen as mustard.”
Meanwhile, in Invercargill during the weekend, two Taranaki entries succeeded in the NZ Professional Bowls Association finals.
West End’s John Roberts and Craig De Faria claimed the NZ world pairs title. With it comes an invitation to the world indoor pairs, that is scheduled to be held in England in early January. Roberts and De Faria are yet to make up their minds about venturing north for the world event, which was first held in 1986. In six of the first seven years of the event, the legendary Englishmen David Bryant and Tony Allcock won the title.
In the national final, Roberts and De Faria won in straight sets over Wellington’s Richard Corry and Ian McLeod 8-7, 8-3.
Paritutu’s Aidan Zittersteijn then took out the final of the United Kingdom singles event. That qualifies him for the UK singles in Newcastle in March 2024.
In the final Zittersteijn ousted Logan Clark (Auckland) 12-3, 4-9, 2-1.
Zittersteijn has also been selected for the NZ PBA side which is scheduled to meet its Australian counter-parts during the season.
It remains a busy time for the Paritutu greenkeeper. He has only just returned from the world championships, where his Cook Island four made the quarterfinals, being surrendering a healthy lead to lose to Scotland. Scotland in turn lost the final to Australia.