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.