Lawn Bowls

We are happy to announce that Revital Fertilisers Bowls Taranaki will feature in a National Under 26’s competition to be held in Wellington. Playing indoors at Naenae will be a challenge, as they face some of the best junior bowlers from provinces around the country, including New Zealand representative Seamus Curtain. Our junior bowlers have performed well over the season and we are hopeful of a strong showing from our team who will be managed for the first time by Simon Rowe. We look forward to following their results and wish everyone involved the best of luck. Thanks to Shifty’s Sports Bar and Café and Revital Fertilisers for their sponsorship of Bowls Taranaki.

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).

TCM Champion of Champions Finals Weekend will be played at Paritutu this weekend. Good luck to everyone involved. See the programme below. Thanks to TCM, Cross Country Rentals, and Dean File Colliers Real Estate for their sponsorship of the Mixed Pairs and Hugh Moss tournaments.

Click below for times and events.

Programme for Finals Weekend

For anyone interested in becoming a Coach or updating their Coaches Certificate. We are hosting with Bowls New Zealand and our Coaches Association a Weekend for you!

Coaching Workshop at the Paritutu Indoor Stadium: 23^rd & 24th July
Foundation $50,   (Saturday 23 July)

Development $100 and  (Saturday and Sunday 23 July and 24 July)

Update Coaches $30 (Sunday 9am to 1pm)

If anyone is interested in becoming a coach or renewing their coaches certificate, this will be your opportunity! It promises to be a good weekend, and an opportunity to improve your skills as a bowler and as a coach. You can register your interest with the Centre via email or on 027 757 8800. Payments will have to be made to Bowls New Zealand prior to the event.

Please make payment to Bowls New Zealand: 

Payment to attend the Bowls NZ Development Coaching Course can be deposited into:

Account number:   BNZ 02-0240-0260530-00

In the two fields available enter following information:

Code (12 letters/numbers) available: CoachnameName

Reference (12 letters/numbers): CoachCsTaran

For more information check out our Coaches Weekend Poster

Our Coaches Association AGM will be held on 20^th May – Stratford-Avon – 10.30am

6.55am Due to the current wet weather and expected rain this morning. We have transferred the Men’s and Women’s Triples from West End to the Indoor Stadium at Paritutu.

Could the following teams report and be ready to play at:

8.30am
Men: Fitzroy, Waitara, Inglewood, Lepperton, Waimea, West End, Vogeltown, Stratford-Avon, Manaia and Paritutu
Women: West End and Waitara (one round only for the Women)

11am:
Men: Tower, Opunake, Oakura, New Plymouth, Hawera Park, Rahotu, Okato,

2pm:
Women: Paritutu, Stratford-Avon, Manaia, Hawera Park, Opunake, Fitzroy, Tower, Lepperton.

Conditions of Play:

Games of Triples have been changed and will be 18 ends. No Time Limit.

Due to slow play in previous events, restricted movement and deliberate slow play laws A4 and A5 will come into effect.
We do not want to have to put you on the stop watch because you are delaying play!
This is included in the Conditions of Play because the stadium is not available to us after 5.30pm
We thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Okato, New Plymouth and Inglewood Women are straight through to finals weekend.

Nominations are open for the role of Men’s Selector and Women’s Selector.

Allan Batley has let us know that he won’t be putting his name forward as selector for next season. We would like to thank Allan for his efforts over the last few years as Men’s Selector. This means there is a vacant spot for selector of the Men’s Team. If anyone would like to put their name forward or would like more information, please feel free to contact the Centre Office.

Note Applications close on the 18^th May.

Weather Update at 7.15am

Clear and fine in New Plymouth. Play to start as scheduled.

We are looking to appoint a manager/selector to take a team down to Wellington to represent Bowls Taranaki in a National Under 26 Competition.

If you are interested please contact the Centre. Applications need to be with the Centre Office by Saturday 15^th April.

The successful applicant will have to be able to travel with the team, and select a 5 person team of Under 26 Players. The team can be mixed or optional. The Tournament runs from Friday 14^th July 2023 to Sunday 16^th July 2023 at Naenae Bowling Club, Wellington. If you would like more information please contact the Centre Office.

TCM sponsored Women’s and Men’s Champions of Champion’s Events

We are very much looking forward to a successful conclusion of the Centre’s events for the year. Bowls Taranaki would like to congratulate all the players, as you are already your club winnners, but there can be only one Champion of Champions! This year’s finals weekend will be played at Paritutu Bowling Club. We hope to be able to schedule the Dean File – Colliers Real Estate Hugh Moss Finals, and the finals of the Cross Country Rentals Mixed Pairs during the Champion of Champion events, if possible.

Men’s and Women’s Fours – Stratford-Avon
Junior Men’s and Women’s Singles – Vogeltown
Senior Men’s and Women’s Singles – West End
(Could players bring a marker with them – players will be expected to mark once eliminated.) If anyone would like to mark, please contact the Centre Office. (West End – players note that lunch will not be available to buy).

Men’s and Women’s Triples – West End
Men’s Pairs – Pihama
Women’s Pairs – Okato

Finals Weekend at Paritutu.

These are the entries the Centre Office has received. Entries for the Pairs and Triples close on Sunday 9th April. Please check your entry, if there are any late additions/replacements required, or events to be completed, please contact the Centre Office by email. Understandably some clubs have struggled to finish their Club Champs due to the amount of rain, we’ve had this year, so some clubs are finishing their champs this weekend. Draws will be published early next week.

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Bowls Taranaki working together with our Clubs.

It’s been a very busy period and now there is a chance to reflect. We hope you have all enjoyed the conclusion of a number of tournaments. Congratulations to the winners, but more importantly we hope that everyone has enjoyed their time on the green.

For Midweek and Saturday Interclub players, we have seen the conclusion of the Egmont Shield, won by Fitzroy over Tower. We thank Patty Symes for her efforts and Lepperton Bowling Club for hosting a great final. Avery and Gilmour Competitions have been concluded with Oakura winning both, what a fantastic result for them! In the Southern Division, Tower won the Snowdon Competition, and in the MiLife Men’s Shield we have found our 3 finalists, Tower, Rahotu and Inglewood. Good luck to them, they will play their final at Pihama. Congratulation also goes to Okato for winning the Darth’s Funeral Service Junior Bowls3five and to West End for winning the Darth’s Champ of Champ Bowls3five.

After rain ruined many well made plans before Christmas, we have now finished the Summerset,  Vospers and Dean File Collier’s Real Estate sponsored Interclub competitions. West End won the Men’s and good luck to them in Wellington. While Paritutu won the Men’s Division 2 closely over Manaia and picked up both Women’s Interclub and Junior Interclub. Bowls Taranaki is contributing to help our club teams to travel to Wellington to represent the province. Good luck!

Of course, a lot of time and energy goes into hosting the Taranaki Open Fours every year, and this year was no exception with 182 Men’s Teams and 82 Women’s Teams entering. We had many compliments about our clubs, the catering, the greens and hospitality. It is a lot of hard work hosting 4 or 5 days, and some clubs hosted for 2 weeks, but we expect the tournament will have been of good benefit to the host clubs. We understand prices have increased all around, and have completed a review of the tournament. We are looking into connecting with Venture Taranaki to further enhance our Tournament and continue to look for a major sponsor for this event.

Clubs have now reported their membership for the current year, and it is pleasing to see an increase in members across the board. 12 of our clubs recorded a positive number of members with the top club being Waitara. Membership is challenging in modern times and it is heartening to see some clubs take a creative approach to getting people through the door, spending their money, using the facilities and playing bowls.

Our Umpire’s continue to report good numbers, with a number of new players seeking to become umpires. They are having an introduction evening coming up at Fitzroy Bowling Club. If you are interested in becoming an umpire, get in touch with the Association. While we also assisted with giving new players a better understanding of the rules with a handy rulebook at our First Year Singles tournament.

Existing coaches will have an opportunity to improve their skills at a Bowls New Zealand held workshop coming soon. Pencil in the 22^nd and 23^rd of July at the Paritutu Indoor Stadium. The Coaches Association will have their AGM at Stratford-Avon on the 20^th May at 10am.

We’ve had many compliments about the qualities of greens from visiting players, and when our players travel away from Taranaki and come back, they always comment on how we should be proud of the good number of quality greens we do have. Thanks to all the greenkeepers and volunteers who continue to produce high quality greens. The Greenkeepers Association is working on setting up another field day with the NZ Sports Turf Institute, and we thank Maurice Symes and Fitzroy Bowling club for their efforts to support Bowls New Zealand and Bowls Gisborne – East Coast clubs to re-build after the devastating cyclone.

Bowls Taranaki hosted 3 of the 4 Representative Tournaments this year, the Men’s and Women’s Octagonal and the Junior Men’s Hexagonal and it went off with a bang. A lot of players from around the lower North Island were impressed with the quality of our greens and clubs. We hope to see them return again, either for our Open, your club tournaments or in future Representative fixtures. After Whanganui and Kapiti were unable to host, we put our hand up to help host the Junior Hexagonal. We thank Hawera Park for doing a great job and look forward to hosting Rep fixtures again when it is our turn.

Our representative teams performed well, with only Wellington standing out above the crowd. Our teams comprised of players from the following clubs: Paritutu, West End, Waitara, New Plymouth, Fitzroy, Inglewood, Stratford-Avon, Okato, Rahotu, Opunake, Hawera Park and Manaia. A truly representative selection of players. We would like to thank all of our Managers and Selectors, who have done a great job looking after our teams this season, John Garrud, Graham Rieve, Cindy Nichol, John Sexton, Don Christensen, Cathy Andrews, Allan Batley and Marty Jordan.

Under 18 Bowls continues to grow, with a number of young players attending sessions at New Plymouth Bowling Club during Term 4. We are looking at working more closely with Sports Taranaki and Taranaki Secondary Schools Sports to improve access to bowls for younger people. With that in mind we have entered into a new initiative with Bowls Wellington to compete in a National Under 26 competition during the Winter season.

Parafed Taranaki and Bowls Taranaki organised a session of Adaptive Bowls for disabled people which was very well received and we look forward to hosting them again with Adaptive bowls for kids with disabilities. This will be held on the 3^rd of April, at the Indoor Stadium at Paritutu.

We would like to thank Pelorus Trust, NZCT, Aotearoa Gaming Trust, Revital Fertilisers, Abraham’s Funeral Home, Jean Sandel Retirement Village, Anderson’s Pies, Dean File – Colliers Real Estate, Darth’s Funeral Services, Tom and Amanda Crehan and the Toi Foundation for their recent sponsorship and support. We look forward to a successful conclusion of the season and hope the weather stays fine for all bowlers!

Ian Lewis – Bowls Taranaki