Grant

The Paritutu pair of Kaylin Huwyler and Hamish Kape and the Hawera Park duo of Pauline Kennedy and Kristin Stampa emerged unbeaten from the weekend to book double finals.

With the focus on the TCM Limited-sponsored champion-of-champions triples and pairs, Paritutu have worked their way into both men’s finals, with Hawera Park following suit in the women’s events.

Huwyler, despite only being seen occasionally in Taranaki this season, continues to impress as a draw player of some quality. In just his third year, Huwyler has one Taranaki title and one in Whanganui. Kape, who sits on four Taranaki titles, will this Saturday compete in his fourth, and then his fifth, Taranaki finals of the season – a remarkable feat.

On Saturday, at Paritutu, the pair combined with Aidan Zittersteijn to make the triples final, where they will meet the Inglewood’s O’Sullivan brothers – Gerry, Bernie and skip Danny.

Kape’s trio received a big scare in the quarterfinals, when they edged out the 2021 champions Mark Anderson (Tower) 18-17. Anderson led by three shots playing the last end. Kape took a three to force the extra end and then secured the shot on the decider with a brilliant just-over draw weighted shot.

There were no such dramas in the semifinals, with Kape thrashing the West End trio of Bruce Moeller, Dennis Moeller and Craig De Faria 27-4.

In the other semifinal, the O’Sullivans, having been locked at 13-all after 16 ends, cribbed ahead thereafter to beat New Plymouth’s Michael Mathews, Gordon Brown and Bill Foley 20-14.

Both women’s semifinals were relatively one-sided.

Kennedy and Stampa, with Ella Smailes in the middle, ousted Janelle Lane, Lyn Weir and Sue Edwards (New Plymouth) 22-7.

In the other, Fitzroy’s Robyn Klenner continued her progress in the sport by skipping Carolyn Wilks and Joan Richards to a 21-8 victory over Opunake’s Val Langton, Eileen Rothwell and Pauline Davy.

The women’s pairs, which was played on Sunday at Hawera Park, saw Kennedy and Stampa advance, along with the experienced Fitzroy combination of Vickie Kelly and Rhonda Adams.

Like the triples, Kennedy and Stampa had the advantage of a bye during the day, but were comfortable in the semis in beating Waitara’s Yvonne Cann and Jean Keith 25-9.

Kelly and Adams have previously won seven Taranaki titles together but they were made to work hard to make the final. A six late in the semifinal was the difference as they beat Tower’s Alison Sayer and Lyn Scott 20-14.

In the men’s, at Manaia, Fitzroy’s Evan Jones and Ron Gadsby upset their more decorated opponents in the semis, John Roberts and Jordan Linn (West End), 22-16. But Huwyler and Kape will be another big hurdle in the final. The Paritutu pair were untroubled during the day, which included a 26-2 win in the last four over Andy Shearer and Peter Radich (Oakura).

The finals this weekend will occur at West End. The fours, triples and junior singles will start at 8.30am on Saturday, with the senior singles and pairs finals due to start at approximately 12 noon.

The Hugh Moss junior pairs and mixed pairs semifinals are scheduled for Sunday morning, with the finals to follow.

Clubs and members are asked to note the following matters:

• Notices of motion are required by April 30.
• Nominations/applications for President, Vice President, the Centre Board and the Events Committee close on May 1.
• Nominations for the Revital Fertilisers Representative selector’s positions close on May 20.
• The nomination/applications forms can be downloaded here: Nominations 2022
• Tina Atkinson-Watt has resigned as the Executive Officer. Please direct any queries to the Chairman. The normal correspondence channels (email, PO Box, telephone) remain accessible. A timetable for a replacement will be determined shortly.

The draws for the TCM Limited-sponsored champion-of-champions triples (to be held on April 23 at Paritutu) and the pairs (to be held on April 24 – men at Manaia and women at Hawera Park) have been released.

For the draw and results of the TCM Limited-sponsored champion-of-champions triples, go to: Champion-of-champions triples draw and results

For the draw and results of the TCM Limited-sponsored champion-of-champions pairs, go to: Champion-of-champions pairs draw and results

The finals weekend on April 30 and May 1 will be held at West End. This weekend will also see the semi and final games of the Bayleys Real Estate-sponsored Hugh Moss junior pairs and the Cross Country Rentals-sponsored Mixed pairs take place. The full programme for this weekend will be released on April 26.

Taranaki’s champion-of-champions finals weekend is shaping up as a celebration of clubs right across the province.

Six of the 10 events had the preliminary rounds completed over the weekend and eight different clubs will be represented amongst those 12 finalists in the TCM Limited-sponsored series.

The fours events were played on Saturday at Stratford-Avon, with Bill Foley (New Plymouth) and Darren Goodin (Paritutu) emerging as the finalists in the men’s event, while Heather Johns (Paritutu) and Liz Johnstone (Waitara) are the surviving women’s sides.

Foley’s team of Graeme Earl, Ian Avery and Wayne Te Huki were decisive in their three wins, which included a 29-13 semifinal effort over Okato’s Mark Grogan, Mickey Manson, Ken Kape and skip Dale McEldowney.

Goodin, skipping Nathan Goodin, John Zittersteijn and Rodger Hassall, survived a couple in scares in the earlier rounds before beating defending champion Paddy Deegan (Opunake) 19-7 in the last four. Deegan’s side of Levi Davis, Daryl MacKenzie and Kewene Ratahi had been impressive in the previous rounds, ousting Scott Roberts (Tower) and John Garrud (West End).

Johns has the same side that won the Dominion fours in 2013 – Carolyn Harris, Debbie Smith and Val Keightley. They beat West End’s Shirley Simpson, Molly Nagle, Denise Cottam and Susan Cottam 19-7 in the third round.

Johnstone’s side of Norma Jane, Ann Hinton and Kathy Gower won its semi 18-7 over Tower’s Alethea Rowlands, Hazel Schwartfeger, Alison Sayer and Patty Symes.

Sunday saw the singles take place, with Susan Cottam and June Ward (Lepperton) advancing emphatically from the senior women’s semifinals at Fitzroy.

Cottam beat Jilly Kimber (Waitara) 21-5, while the ageless Ward, who last won the event in 2008, was also merciless in defeating the 2013 champion Barbara Batley (Paritutu) 21-4.

In the junior women’s at Lepperton, both semifinals were also one-sided. Judy Crawford (Fitzroy) beat Alethea Rowlands (Tower) 21-4 while Briar Atkinson (Paritutu), the champion from two seasons ago, accounted for Tina Quilter (Lepperton) 21-3.

Both men’s singles events were played at West End, with Grant Anderson (Tower) and Dean Elgar (West End) the two senior finalists.

Elgar, having won the open singles last month, remained on track to do the double, beating Neil Earley (Inglewood) 21-5 in the semifinals.

Anderson highlighted that he is back operating at a level similar to when he reigned supreme as a skip in Taranaki. After edging Darren Goodin (Paritutu) 21-19 in the last eight, he beat Stratford-Avon stalwart John Sextus, who had belied his 82 years throughout the day with some tremendous draw play, 21-10 in the last four.

Sporting experience overcame youth in the two junior semifinals.

Accomplished snooker player, Lindsay Franklin (Stratford-Avon), who recently won the first year singles, came from 19-6 down to deny Nathan Goodin (Paritutu) 21-20.

Franklin will meet New Plymouth’s Michael Mathews in the decider. Mathews, who first moved from England to take up a semi-professional soccer contract with Dunedin City, called on his composure to defeat Camron Horo (Rahotu) 21-14.

Wellington dominated both the men’s and women’s events of the regional intercentre bowls contest at Paritutu on Saturday.

In the final analysis, it was a comprehensive victory for both teams from the capital. But that was not before some anxious moments.

Conversely, Revital Fertilisers Taranaki came up short. The men finished second, while the women had a disappointing day, winning just one game and drawing one other from the nine played. They shared third with Wanganui.

In the men’s section, Wellington won its three matches against Kapiti, Taranaki and Wanganui.

After Taranaki had squeaked past Wanganui 2-1 in the morning, it created a somewhat premature final against Wellington in the second round.

Seamus Curtin proved a little too hot for Darren Goodin in the singles, winning 25-18. Goodin had pipped Gavin Scrivener 25-24 in the opening round to secure the Wanganui match.

Dean Elgar and Hamish Kape, after a first-up one-point loss, levelled the ledger beating Stephen Ditfort and Raymond Martin 19-13.

That meant it all came down to the fours. Craig De Faria’s quartet of Adam Collins, Dave Wilson and Steve Walker, which had opened impressively 21-8 over Ray Park, trailed Ben King’s quartet for the entire match. However, the deficit had been reduced to one shot playing what became a short, loose, final end.

Taranaki held three on the charge over, but King drew the shot to ensure an 11-9 victory that clinched the match for Wellington.

Wellington completed their dominance beating Wanganui 2-1 in the last round, although Scrivener ousted Curtin 25-16.

At the same time, Taranaki beat Kapiti 2-1, with Goodin and De Faria winning.

Taranaki were never in the hunt in the women’s event.

Wellington, with a youthful and talented side, were emphatic in the first round with a 3-0 whitewash. Kristin Stampa’s team of Anne Brophy, Susan Cottam and Trish Howard, added a degree of respectability losing 16-12 to Nicole Toomey in the fours without ever threatening to win.

Val McEldowney took on the singles role in round two, narrowly falling 25-22 to Jane Selby-Paterson (Kapiti). Kapiti also took the pair and four, which left both them and Wellington with perfect records heading into the last round.

Wellington took that clash 3-0 to secure overall honours. But Lisa White had to come from behind to deny Selby-Paterson 25-23 in the singles. It was a similar situation in the pairs, where Dale Rayner and Kaaren Guilford won the last four ends to edge Audrey Stevenson and Diane McGill 16-15. Toomey’s four won 21-9 over Eileen Jones.

Taranaki’s last round match with Wanganui ended in a tie. Margy Carey and Rhonda Adams took the pairs, while Sue Winter drew the singles.

West End’s Dean Elgar collected his official 15th Taranaki title in emphatic fashion on Monday.

Elgar withstood a tough and a long day to claim his sixth Taranaki men’s open singles crown, beating Okato’s Hamish Kape 21-10 in the final at West End.

Elgar put on an excellent display, dominating the majority of the final of the Janko Computers-sponsored event and showing that the 2017 Dominion singles winner remains a top talent.

The victory enabled Elgar to be awarded a second bar to his gold star for 15 titles. Elgar’s 15 Taranaki titles were accumulated in the open singles (2003, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2022), Christmas pairs (2013, 2019), open triples (2015, 2021), champion-of-champions singles (2010, 2015, 2019), champion-of-champions triples (2017) and champion-of-champions fours (2011).Three earlier mixed pairs events pre-amalgamation do not count. In addition, Elgar has also won the Bill Smee twice, the NZ intercentre, the Dominion fours (2019) and a Manawatu Superbowls.

In the final, Elgar jumped out to a 6-1 lead and after nine ends that had become 15-4.

Kape rallied, closing to 16-10 in arrears, before Elgar took two singles and a three to wrap up the title.

Both earlier semifinals were one-sided, with Elgar beating Bruce Phillips (Patea) 21-8 and Kape defeating Dave Wilson (West End) 21-9.

After 34 players had qualified by lunchtime on Sunday, Elgar received the roughest end of the draw and needed to win six games in post section.

Of the four games he played on Monday, his quarterfinal against Daryl Read (Paritutu) was his trickiest, Elgar coming from 20-15 down to emerge a 21-20 victor.

Meanwhile, New Plymouth’s Val McEldowney won the Jean Sandel-sponsored Taranaki women’s open singles which was also finalised on Monday at West End.

It was McEldowney’s second victory in the singles and she now has 14 Taranaki titles in total.

She beat clubmate Margy Carey 21-17 in the decider.

While Carey did hold the edge in the opening third of the match, leading 7-5, the next stanza was dominated by McEldowney. The 2013 Dominion singles winner drew more consistently to create a 19-11 lead.

However, Carey then produced her best bowls of the final, taking the next four ends to close up the game at 19-17. But McEldowney drew two shots on the next to conclude the contest.

Carey was especially impressive in the semifinals, ousting Kristin Stampa (Hawera Park) 21-8, while McEldowney had a ding-dong clash with Cathy Andrews (Paritutu), prevailing 21-18.

Two post section rounds on Sunday afternoon at Paritutu had whittled the 14 qualifiers down to the semifinalists.

[fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”true” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_sizes_top=”” border_sizes_bottom=”” border_sizes_left=”” border_sizes_right=”” first=”true”][fusion_text]

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Thank you all for your patience as we deal with Covid-19.

Prior to the draw being released on Wednesday for this weekend’s Open singles, we had had five pullouts from the men’s field and two from the women’s event. All vacancies had been filled by Wednesday.

In the last 48 hours, we have had a further five withdrawals from the mens and two from the womens. The womens field has again been filled and the draw will be updated later today. The men’s field, however, is currently three short. If we can not fill these holes, wins will occur by default. Again, the draw will be finalised later today.

For the Bayleys Real Estate-sponsored Hugh Moss junior pairs, we have been blown away with a record entry of 48 teams. Section play occurs on March 19 at Stratford-Avon and Inglewood. Because of Covid, once again, the draw will not be released until the Wednesday prior to the event.

The draw for both the men’s Janko Computers-sponsored Open singles and the women’s Jean Sandel-sponsored Open singles will be released on Wednesday. The events are scheduled for March 12-14.

This decision has been made because of the risk of further pull-outs because of Covid-19 and the need to perform a redraw.

Currently there are 84 in the men’s singles and 40 in the women’s singles. Two further entries are required at this stage to enable the perfect draw, which is divisible by six. Players will play four games and mark two between 9am Saturday and lunchtime on Sunday. Post section will follow on Sunday afternoon and on Monday.

West End will act as headquarters, with play also at Paritutu, Fitzroy and Inglewood.