Grant

With the persistent rain, a full day’s play is not possible (on November 19). Please note the following:

Play in division one will occur in the Indoor Complex at Paritutu – see below for the specific times and rink allocations.

The scheduled division two final between Tower and Paritutu is postponed. A new date will be advised.

Division one schedule for 19 November 2023:

9am: Opunake v West End (rinks singles 2, pairs 3, fours 1, round 5 fixture); Fitzroy v New Plymouth (rinks singles 5, pairs 6, fours 4, round 5 fixture).

11.15am (approx.): Paritutu v Waitara (rinks singles 2, pairs 3, fours 1, round 5 fixture); Fitzroy v Opunake (rinks singles 6, pairs 4, fours 5, round 6 fixture).

2pm (approx.): Waitara v Stratford-Avon (rinks singles 3, pairs 1, fours 2, round 6 fixture); Paritutu v New Plymouth (rinks singles 6, pairs 4, fours 5, round 6 fixture).

This will leave one full round to be played – clubs will be advised in due course.

A host of new faces will feature in the Revital Fertilisers Taranaki representative bowls teams when they square off against Whanganui this Saturday.

There are numerous senior men unavailable for the fixture, while the trend of going with less experienced players continues with the women’s side.

In the senior men’s side, 2020 junior champion-of-champions winner Kurt Smith will make his senior debut, alongside Bruce Colgan and Steve Temperton. All three have previously been involved in the under-eights side. Colgan was also one of the under-eight players involved in September’s Waikato fixture.

Among the men not available are Hamish Kape – a quarterfinalist in both the big pro pairs and fours tournaments in Nelson over the past week – Daryl Read, Dean Elgar, Scott Roberts, Jordan Linn, Dave Wilson and Steve Walker.

The big name missing from the senior women’s squad is Briar Atkinson. She is enroute to the Hong Kong International Classic.

Alesha Quay, Amanda Crehan, Bridget Fletcher, Esther Ward-Campbell and Tina Atkinson-Watt will all step up to the senior ranks for the first time, although the majority were also involved in the Waikato event.

The one-day fixture sees the men compete at the Tower club, with the women at Manaia.

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki Senior men: Darren Goodin (Paritutu), Maurice Symes (Fitzroy), John Roberts (Tower), Aidan Zittersteijn (Paritutu), Kurt Smith (Paritutu), Bruce Colgan (West End), Craig De Faria (West End), Adam Collins (Paritutu), Steve Sabine (Inglewood), Steve Temperton (West End).

Selector: John Garrud. Team Manager: Bruce Hall.

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki eight-years-and-under men: Corey Brookes (West End), Brian Pearce (Stratford-Avon), Peter van Dyk (Inglewood), Levi Davis (Opunake), Mike Baldwin (Paritutu), Evan Jones (Fitzroy), Simon Rowe (Fitzroy), Rob Clark (Manaia), Doug Clark (Manaia), Craig Murray (Oakura). Selector: John Garrud. Team Manager: Graham Reive.

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki Senior women: Alesha Quay (Paritutu), Amanda Crehan (Paritutu), Bridget Fletcher (Paritutu), Chris Commane (Opunake), Esther Ward-Campbell (Opunake), Gale Fache (Paritutu), Jackie Moeahu (Paritutu), Leanne Halls (West End), Tina Atkinson-Watt (Paritutu) and Trish Howard (West End)

Revital Fertilisers Taranaki eight-years-and-under women: Alethea Rowlands (Tower), Gloria Wolfe (Waitara), Irene Taunt (Manaia), Janet Ravji (Stratford-Avon), Judy Crawford (Fitzroy), Linda Kape (Okato), Rita Davey (Opunake), Shelley Baldwin (Paritutu), Shelley Clark (Manaia), Sheryll Taylor (Stratford-Avon).

The final four have been found in the Para Bowls New Zealand singles championships at Paritutu.

Before the heavens opened at lunchtime on Tuesday, the quarterfinals were successfully completed on the slick Paritutu front green, with the surviving players in the singles, from an original field of 46, being Chen Naude (Putaruru), Peter Horne (Naenae) Adrian Browne (Upper Hutt) and Graham Skellern (Takapuna).

They will square off in the semifinals at Paritutu, starting at 9am on Wednesday morning, with the final scheduled to commence at 2pm.

Naude beat fellow Waikato competitor Geoffrey Carseldine, who qualified top by virtue of his four wins on Monday, 20-10 in the last eight. Naude is bidding to repeat his effort from June when he made the final of the Australian Open.

The redoubtable Horne, MNZM, with more than 40 years top-flight competition under his belt, beat 26-year-old South Otago bowler Reilly Paterson – grandson of the 2011 Dominion pairs finalist, Marilyn – 21-13. Horne got off to a flyer, leading 15-0. But Paterson then plastered the jack and Horne needed to call on his vast experience to escape on a number of heads to get across the line.

Browne, a former accomplished golfer, won through 17-10 over Rod Abbott, while former Taranaki Hearld reporter Graham Skellern ousted Wayne Cowley 21-9.

The afternoon rain meant that the three sectional rounds in the drawn pairs were forced into the Indoor Complex, with shortened matches taking place.

The top two pairs, Paterson/Bernice Tyree and Kerrin Fair/Sally Engi, will square off at 11am on Wednesday for the gold medal. At the same time, the luckless Skellern/Graham Smithies – who like the aforementioned duos also had three wins – will play for bronze against Herbert Lawson/Ralph Woolley.

The annual event concludes on Thursday with a Bowls3five triples competition and dinner.

Due to the persistent rain overnight in Stratford, and with more predicted, today’s under-8s trial at Stratford-Avon is cancelled. The selectors will be considering their options and may reschedule this event for a latter date.

Paritutu had a weekend to remember when it claimed seven of the 12 Taranaki titles that were concluded at the club on Saturday and Sunday.

Across those seven victories in the TCM-sponsored champion-of-champions series, five players collected their gold star for five Taranaki wins – Bridget Fletcher, Gale Fache, Daryl Read, Kaylin Huwyler and Briar Atkinson.

Atkinson, aged 19, became the youngest ever gold star holder when she skipped her triple of Gaye Holub and Jackie Moeahu to a commanding 24-5 win over Inglewood’s Lorraine Crofskey, Loris Ropitini and Cindy Nicoll in the last of the events that were completed.

Atkinson had earlier won her fourth title on Saturday when she overturned a 12-4 deficit to beat Trish Howard (West End) 21-16 in the senior women’s singles final.

Fletcher and Fache combined with Holub and Kileigh Barber to post a big 26-9 win over Tower’s Alethea Rowlands, Faye Hopkins, Alison Sayer and Jane Augustine in the women’s fours final.

For good measure Fache added a sixth title on Sunday, when in a dramatic finish, partner Brendon Walton ran the jack into the ditch with the last bowl of the Cross Country Rentals mixed pairs final. That enabled the duo to pip Val and Maurice Symes (Fitzroy) 16-15.

Huwyler had the added satisfaction of winning the men’s triples with his father, Phil, and Kevan Sellers. They beat Sam Geers, Ian Spurdle and Matt Watson (Hawera Park) 21-9. Huwyler, a fourth-year player, became the quickest ever to win the star having only played in the province in the past two seasons and then on just a part-time basis. He has claimed two Wanganui titles during that same period.

Read’s fifth victory came in the men’s pairs with Aidan Zittersteijn, after they overcame Tower’s Mark Hawken and Kevin Hills 24-14.

Veteran Maurice Symes had earlier taken his fourth senior men’s singles title, a remarkable feat, given his last one was 40 years ago. Symes beat Gerry O’Sullivan (Inglewood) 21-17 in the final. O’Sullivan had led 17-14, before Symes took a four, a two and a single.

A tense and exciting finish came in the men’s fours, when Nathan Goodin, Rodger Hassall, Adam Collins and Darren Goodin (Paritutu) prevailed 17-14 over Bruce Lilley, Steve Temperton, Bruce Hall and John Garrud (West End). Paritutu led by six with two to play, before two bombs from Garrud saw West End take a four and then hold two on the last end. However, Goodin, with the last bowl, put the jack into the ditch for one.

Howard was also left frustrated in the women’s pairs, with Lorraine Heal, after she suffered her second finals loss, going down 31-17 to Fitzroy’s Faye Gecse and Maree Gadsby.

Rowlands, after the fours loss, got some consolation in beating Irene Taunt (Manaia) 21-11 in the women’s junior singles decider.

The men’s junior singles title went Camron Horo (Rahotu) who beat Craig Murray (Oakura) 21-13.

In the Dean File Colliers Hugh Moss junior pairs, Merv Dew and Michael Mathews (New Plymouth) came from 8-3 down to beat Shelley and Mike Baldwin (Paritutu) 15-10.

Gold star winners

Gale Fache: champion-champions pairs (1999), champion-of-champions fours (2014), champion-of-champions pairs (2015), open pairs (2017), champion-of-champions fours (2023).

Bridget Fletcher: champion-champions pairs (2017), champion-of-champions triples (2020), open triples (2022), open triples (2023), champion-of-champions fours (2023).

Daryl Read: champion-of-champions junior singles (2012), champion-of-champions triples (2020), mixed pairs (2021), open fours (2023), champion-of-champions pairs (2023).

Kaylin Huwyler: centre fours (2022), champion-of-champions triples (2022), centre fours (2023), open fours (2023), champion-of-champions triples (2023).

Briar Atkinson: mixed pairs (2021), open triples (2022), open singles (2023), champion-of-champions singles (2023), champion-of-champions triples (2023).

Taranaki’s bid for glory at the New Zealand intercentre event in Christchurch is over.

There was some merit in the efforts of both the Revital Fertilisers Taranaki men, who made the quarterfinals, and the women, who effectively fell just one game short of the playoffs.

The men qualified second in their section, after four wins and two losses. The losses came against section winner Central Otago and the West Coast.

Dean Elgar led the way with five wins from six, an excellent return which included a win over two-time Dominion singles winner Shaun Scott.

The pair of Craig De Faria and Maurice Symes won four, while the fours of Adam Collins, Aidan Zittersteijn, Steve Walker and Hamish Kape won four and drew one.

Taranaki matched off with the strong Wellington side in the quarterfinals on late Saturday afternoon.

For nigh on the first hour, Elgar had parity in his singles game against Blackjack Raymond Martin, the scores being locked at 6-all. But Martin pushed away to 14-9 in front before finishing the contest off with a single, consecutive fours and a two.

De Faria and Symes had an excellent tussle with Stephen Ditfort and Andrew Kelly, who while still living in Christchurch turned out for Wellington. Coming from 7-0 down, De Faria and Symes edged in front, but they dropped a three on the home straight, eventually falling 18-14.

Kape’s four, playing Robbie Bird, Finbar McGuigan, Caleb Hope and Blake Signal, also had a close, tense match. But they too went down 14-9.

In the final wash-up in their section, the Taranaki women won two matches from five, which included a 2-1 loss to Marlborough in the final round. One further win there would have secured that match and seen Taranaki through.

Briar Atkinson won two games from five and finished with a positive differential, but was left to rue losses by two points and one point on the second day. Her only loss on the first day was 25-18 to North Harbour’s unbeaten Selina Goddard, defeat only coming after Atkinson had put up a bold show and Goddard had used weight late twice in the encounter to score a four and a three.

Taranaki’s pair of Susan Cottam and Trish Howard opened with a strong win, but found the going too tough after that, losing the last four.

The experienced four of Chris Commane, Rhonda Adams, Kristin Stampa and Val Symes had a positive return of three wins.

West End’s Dean Elgar and Paritutu’s Darren Goodin have had many top games against one another over the years.

But Monday’s final in the Taranaki men’s open singles would have to take the cake.

The duo, along with Craig De Faria, have dominated men’s singles in Taranaki bowls over the past 20 years.

And that was easy to understand why when Elgar and Goodin went point-for-point in the final of Janko Computers-sponsored event. Elgar got the glory, 21-20, but the abiding memory will be of the quality of the encounter.

It was, undoubtedly, the most intense, accurate clash between the two and those same adjectives would also apply to men’s open singles finales in the province.

Elgar’s victory gave him his seventh open singles title and his 17th in total. But at no point did he ever feel comfortable of victory, in the match that was played inside at Paritutu, after heavy rain at lunchtime saw the final transferred.

While both players scored a four each, no one was able to string a succession of ends together, such was the quality of the opponent.

That was best exemplified on the 26th end. Goodin had taken a two on the previous head – falling marginally short with his last bowl to miss victory – to lead 20-19.

On the 26th, three of the first four bowls were touchers. Goodin then ran the jack into the ditch, although was a little frustrated that the jack partially shaded off an Elgar bowl. Goodin still had shot, about 1m away. Elgar drew the shot, Goodin bettered it, and then Elgar, with his last, glanced off his third bowl to roll in to make it 20-all.

Goodin killed the next end. On the replay, Elgar drew close with his first, which remained the shot throughout.

In the semifinals at Oakura, Elgar came from 14-11 down to beat Paul Howell (Inglewood) 21-15, while Goodin accounted for Bruce Lilley (West End) 21-8.

Meanwhile, in the Jean Sandel-sponsored women’s open singles, which was also finalised inside, Paritutu’s Briar Atkinson beat Fitzroy’s Val Symes 21-9 in the decider.

It was Atkinson’s first open singles crown and third gold-star qualifying point. But assuming she sticks with Taranaki bowls, the calculators will be required within the next 30 years.

Symes led 5-0 early in the final, but by the time she scored, Atkinson had raced through to 10. That trend continued over the subsequent heads, with Atkinson drawing most consistently.

In the semifinals, at West End, Atkinson beat Susan Cottam (West End0 21-16, while Symes edged Gale Fache (Paritutu) 21-18.

Unfortunately, the rain has denied us. So the Jean Sandel-sponsored women’s Open singles final and the Janko Computers-sponsored men’s Open singles final have been transferred to Paritutu. The women’s final is between Val Symes and Briar Atkinson. The men’s final is between Darren Goodin and Dean Elgar.

It is one of the misfortunes of fours as a bowls team game that the often the only player who rates much of a mention is the skip of the side.

And on Saturday, as Hamish Kape’s Paritutu quartet made it back-to-back victories in the Scott Roberts Metcalfe Real Estate-sponsored men’s centre fours at Hawera Park, the value of an all-round, productive team was superbly illustrated.

While Kape had been instrumental in his side’s semifinal victory, in the final it was the cumulative drawing power of his front three – Kaylin Huwyler, Nathan Goodin and Aidan Zittersteijn – that gave Paritutu the advantage in the decider.

At the final count, Kape’s crew defeated West End’s Garry Murfitt 18-9 after 17 of the scheduled 18 ends. Murfitt’s side included Bruce Colgan, Lindsay Murfitt and Dennis Osborne.

The opening half of the game was an even contest. Murfitt took a three on the fifth end to lead 6-2, after Kape was astray with two drives. But two ends later the ledger was levelled at 6-6, with Goodin in particularly good touch.

After 10 ends, the sides could not be separated at 8-8.

But thereafter Kape’s side, aided by threes on the 12th and 14th heads, dominated proceedings.

Huwyler and Colgan had a good tussle off the front. Over the closing ends, Huwyler, a member of the senior Whanganui squad this season, was impressive to set up the Paritutu team.

Kape now has six Taranaki titles, Zittersteijn has four and both Goodin and Huwyler sit on three apiece.

In the semifinals, Kape converted and reduced on a number of ends as his side beat Hawera Park’s George Stannard, Trevor Symes, Sean Cullinan and Frank Pollock 20-14. The two teams could not be separated through 13 ends.

Murfitt’s side was in control from an early stage in the other semi, beating Hawera Park’s Gerald Hopkins, Jarrod Pettitt, Glynn Herbert and Brian Eccleshall 23-7.

Meanwhile, in the Vospers-sponsored women’s first division interclub at West End on Saturday (05/11/22), after three rounds, the points are: Paritutu 14 +29, West End 10 +13, Fitzroy 10 0, New Plymouth 8 0, Inglewood 7 +10, Opunake 5 -52.

In the Vospers-sponsored women’s second division interclub at Stratford-Avon on Saturday, West End and Paritutu lead their respective sections. After three rounds, the points are:

Black:     West End 14 +32,  New Plymouth 10 -4,  Opunake 5 +6,  Stratford/Avon 5 -5,  Fitzroy 2 -29.

Amber:   Paritutu 10 +27,  Lepperton 10 -5,  Tower 8 +7,  Waitara 6 -12,  Manaia 2 – 17.