7.00am – All venues are clear, and at this stage will be ready for play as scheduled. Opening at 8.45am, 9.00am Start. At this stage please report to your venue. Weather conditions will continue to be assessed as there is rain around in New Plymouth. Any notices to be posted on the website.
8.45am – Play has been delayed. A further assessment of conditions will be made at 11am. Players to now report at 12.30.pm
Ian Lewis
Welcome to this summer’s Midlands Funds Management Taranaki Men’s Open Fours. Play starts at 9am Monday Morning. We would like to welcome all our visiting teams and hope you have an enjoyable stay in Taranaki.
Please check the website on the morning of the days play for more information in case of rain or a rain delay.
The Centre Office has some available players in case of illness or injury, if you require a substitute player please contact the Centre Office on 027 757 8800.
We will have regular updates throughout the tournament. Check in here for the latest news and results are available through the website.
If you would like to purchase a shirt, Game Changer will be taking orders during the tournament. Get in touch with them for more information. www.gamechanger.co.nz
We would like to thank the following for their support: Midlands Funds Management, Toi Foundation, Venture Taranaki, The New Plymouth Club, Auto City, Game Changer, Peter White and The Devon Hotel.
We also would like to thank all of our volunteers and helpers in all of our clubs that are hosting this year.
They just secured a whopping $7,000 grant to upgrade their bowling green mower! Not only will this new mower make their green look like a million bucks, but Club Secretary Carol Deegan says ”it’s also cordless and super quiet. No more tangled cords or waking up the whole neighborhood when we mow in the wee hours.”
The NZCT has awarded the Opunake Bowling Club a grant of $7,000 toward the cost of a new Greens mower.
“I’m old enough to remember planting all the trees along the Maui Gas Fields site at Oaonui as a fundraiser. Every time I drive past and see how big they are now, I’m reminded of our community effort on behalf of the Club.” says Patron – Val Coombe.
From small acorns, big oaks can certainly grow!
Club Secretary Carol Deegan adds –
We have a small number of dedicated members who work extremely hard to improve and maintain our bowling green. Our current mower is over twenty years old and no longer serving us well, so a new Protrim 760 silent greens mower will be an extremely valuable tool.
Taranaki is hosting a National tournament in February 2024 and Bowls Taranaki will need to use a number of local bowling greens for the tournament. Our Greenkeepers goal is to have the green up to standard so our club will be selected as one of the venues.
As a Committee, we want to support our Greenkeepers by replacing dilapidated equipment in a timely fashion. They currently use a 240-volt mower with a power cord, so the new mower will be of huge benefit from the safety aspect alone. The new mower will also be much quieter – a huge plus when early morning mowing is required before bowling events.
NZCT’s GM Grants, Marketing and Communications, Ben Hodges says “We’re delighted to help the club with this critical piece of equipment. We thank the Opunake Surf Inn for their help in raising responsible gaming funds that made this grant possible.”
Opunake Bowling Club was established in 1903. The Womens and Mens Bowling Club amalgamated in 1981-82, but held separate Committees until 2012.
We currently have about ninety members – this includes casual membership and prior to Christmas enjoyed our final evening of Twilight Bowls for the year, a community event where non-bowlers are encouraged to give Bowls a go. Our eight rinks were full every Friday evening with bowlers, including high school students teaming up with their parents and younger children watching as their parents enjoyed the experience of bowling – a very family orientated event.
We also have many older and more experienced full-time bowlers. Our ladies especially enjoy the mid-week competitions, as well as Club Day for all members on a Sunday.
We recently hosted a Mens Inter-Club final (Taranaki event) on December 23rd and a Te-Maunga Bowls event (Māori Bowls event) on January 6th 2024.
We are always looking to welcome new members.
Bowls is no longer just a game your grandparents might play and in the wider NZ Bowling Community it is the younger players who are making moves and challenging for National titles.
For more information, please contact Carol Deegan at bowlsopunake@xtra.co.nz, or call 06 761 8324.
Please note the following:
Entries can be optional ie, men’s, women’s or mixed. We would like to see everyone who wants to play, and every club that would like to field a team be able to play, so if you would like to play contact your club. The first night will be held at Fitzroy and Manaia. A draw and conditions of play will be decided once the number of entries are known.
Entries close this Sunday the 14th of January.
Congratulations to Coastal, winners of the Summerset Men’s Division 2 Interclub. Finals were played at Opunake and the home team came away with the win over Paritutu, West End and Waitara. Coastal represented the 4 clubs from the Western Division, Pihama, Opunake, Rahotu and Okato. Congratulations to the winning team of Harry Davy, Graeme Mills, Daryl Mackenzie, Levi Davis, Ian Lowry, Paddy Deegan, Alan Niwa and Bruce Peacock.
Patea Bowling Club hosted their first Club Fours tournament in 5 years last Saturday. A successful day saw them host a full field of teams from all around Taranaki and Whanganui Centres, including players from Okato, New Plymouth, Waitara, Tower, Hawera Park and Waverley.
Bowls Taranaki Chairman Robert Wolfe, (Waitara) complimented Patea on how well the green played, and for hosting a successful tournament. Teams of Four competed for prizes on the day, with 5 winning teams, from Waverley, Waitara, Tower and two teams from Patea. The overall winners were Frances and Ian Busby and Chris and Sandra Solomons from Tower.
Frances and Ian were once regular visitors to tournaments at Patea and enjoyed the friendly club and the fabulous food on offer. “It was really good to go back again” and they look forward to the next time they can make it to Patea.
If you get a chance, get down and visit friendly Patea for a day of Bowls. Their next tournament will be held on Monday the 4th of March 2024.
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
This season Manaia, Pihama and Paritutu are holding tournaments to celebrate their Anniversary. Manaia and Pihama are turning 125 Years old, while Paritutu celebrate 100 years.
Manaia is thrilled to announce their upcoming 125th Jubilee. Put the dates in your calendar!
Manaia Bowling Club:
Men’s 2 Day Jubilee Tournament (fours), 9th & 10th March 2024 (Taranaki Anniversary)
Ladies 1 Day Jubilee Tournament (fours) 15th April 2024. Check their Facebook page or email manaiabc@outlook.com for more details.
Pihama’s 125th Tournament will be held on Saturday 4th May 2024. Contact Kevin Pengelly for more information.
Paritutu’s 100 Year Celebration will be held from Friday 29th March 2024 – Sunday 31st March 2024
Registration and Programme details are available at www.paritutubowls.co.nz
Contact: Kevin Archer – Centennial Chairperson – 021 116 4771, or
Barbara Harvey – Centennial Secretary – 027 244 6522
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).
Congratulations to Hawera Park and New Plymouth, who have won through to the final of the Patty Symes sponsored Women’s Egmont Shield. Congratulations to both sides. They will play in a final on the Tuesday 6th of February. 1pm Start
Venue to be confirmed.