Thanks to all clubs and volunteers for getting 2023 up and running.
It is good to see a number of new teams visiting for the Midlands Funds Management Taranaki Men’s Open Fours and The Devon Hotel Women’s Open Fours. We especially would like to welcome our visiting team from Australia for the Women’s Open, we hope they have a great time and take back to Aussie the good word. Razz Print are a new sponsor of ours. They are busy printing the Open Handbooks that will be posted out, or ready to collect from your club, in the very near future.
As part of promoting our tournament, we have produced a line of Taranaki Open Fours shirts with our partner Game Changer. These shirts will be available to buy at West End on the Sunday prior to the tournament starting or through the Game Changer online shop during the tournament.
Despite the weather, we have been able to complete our Metcalfe Real Estate Men’s Centre Fours, Cross Country Rentals Mixed Pairs, Vospers Women’s Interclub, Auto City Men’s Christmas Pairs, Andersons Pies Women’s Open Pairs and Summerset Men’s Interclub and look forward to the coming months of summer sun. Mention must go out to Urenui Bowling Club who won Summerset Men’s Division 3 Interclub. Their team of Terry Fieldes, Dave Johnston, Murray Dalton, Kevin McCutchan, Brian Adlam, Rick Caskey, Colin Hall, Danny O’Sullivan and Murray Blyde picked up their club’s first Men’s trophy since winning the Northern Division Shield Competition in 1996. Congratulations to all the winners, full results are available on our website.
Our Representative sides have had a successful start to the season with wins over Waikato and Whanganui. Our selectors are very pleased with the results, and impressed with the talent that is available. A large number of clubs have players who have been picked and we would like to thank Manaia, Paritutu and Stratford-Avon for their efforts in hosting. We look forward to the next events, which are the Junior Hexagonal in Wellington and the Octagonal in Whanganui. Both events are in February.
Our Umpires Association recently held their annual Tournament. They had 32 teams on a sunny day at Stratford-Avon, which was a great turnout and a tribute to their work. Thanks to Collective First National for their sponsorship of the Umpires Tournament.
Many of our Coaches have been involved with providing sessions for bowlers around the province. This has ranged from assisting new bowlers with the basics of the game, to other bowlers requesting assistance to “iron out” the odd problem they are dealing with. Additionally, assistance has been given to both the men’s and women’s representative squads prior to their matches against Waikato and Whanganui in November. Also, Mike Sandel from Taranaki Rugby (ex NZ Cricket) was brought in to speak about High Performance. All have appreciated the support given by the coaches.
In July, four people completed their Foundation Coach course and five others commenced their Development Course training, along with 13 other Development Coaches completing their re-accreditation. It would be great to see every club have a recognised coach, so if you are interested please approach the Coaches Association.
Bowls Waitara received some very good news with advice that a grant application to Taranaki Electricity Trust was successful for resurfacing their artificial green. The new Tiger Turf green will replace their existing green that has served them so well over the last 22 years.
Congratulations to Megan Peters who was a winner of a South Taranaki Community Award in recognition of her volunteer work with a number of clubs, including Manaia Bowling Club. Thank you to Megan for your time and effort and contribution to your community.
Assessments have recently been made of all of the greens for the upcoming Nationals and Bowls Taranaki events. Bowls New Zealand were very impressed with the overall standard and high quality of both our clubs and of our greens. Credit to all of our greenkeepers for keeping their greens in good condition. Assessments have been sent out to all clubs.
In recent Honours it was great to see recognition on a national level for some of our promising young bowlers. Briar Atkinson won the Bowls New Zealand Female Emerging Player of the Year Award and was Junior Sportswoman of the year at the Sport Taranaki Awards. Her recent performances in Hong Kong were rewarded with selection in the New Zealand Development Side for the Trans-Tasman event later this season.
Hamish Kape, Kurt Smith, Kaylin Huwyler and Briar Atkinson were all named in the New Zealand High Performance Wider Training Squad for 2023-24. We look forward to one day, seeing you pull on a black shirt and representing our country. Congratulations to you all.
We have successfully received grants from the Toi Foundation, Venture Taranaki, Aotearoa Gaming Trust, Kiwi Gaming Foundation, Lion Foundation, Sport Taranaki and Grassroots Trust Central for the season. We would like to thank these funding providers for their assistance.
We also would like to thank all of the volunteers at clubs who help out with hosting events and running your local club. From preparing greens, to looking after club facilities, administration and planning. Thank you for your efforts.
Ian Lewis
Bowls Taranaki