Craig De Faria has now won 30 Taranaki bowls titles.
The West Ender achieved the milestone, the first player in the province to do so, when he skipped John Roberts to win the Christmas pairs on their home green on Saturday. It was the fourth victory for the duo in the event and Roberts’ personal overall tally moved to 28.
In the final of the Auto City-sponsored pairs they beat Kaylin Huwyler and Hamish Kape, playing under the Okato banner, 22-15.
There was double joy for West End as Lorraine Heal and Trish Howard claimed the Andersons Pies-sponsored Taranaki women’s open pairs. In a nailbiter, they edged out Fitzroy’s Judy Crawford and Rhonda Adams 22-21 in the final, played inside at Paritutu. Play had been transferred from Stratford-Avon midway through the earlier semifinals.
Roberts and Defaria, with a three, hit the lead at 8-6 after seven of the 21 ends in the final. It was a lead they did not relinquish.
While Huwyler and Kape were certainly competitive, they did not produce the same consistency that they had earlier, especially in the quarterfinals when they were completely dominant.
Two ends of the final settled the issue in the overall analysis. West End scored a drawn five on end 13, with Okato wayward. That took the score to 17-8. Huwyler and Kape replied with a three and then held a five on the next head. With the final bowl, De Faria came off the third shot to take the ace making it 18-11. Had he missed, a 17-16 scoreline would have created a grandstand finish.
As it was, the trademark steadiness of Roberts and De Faria prevailed. It gave De Faria, with his adroitness and inexorable determination, another career highlight as he hit the magic 30 mark.
It was not as clearcut in the semifinals for the victors, though. After holding a handy lead, De Faria was required to drive off one of the Paritutu bowls belonging to Don Christensen and Darren Goodin to force an extra end. And then, on the decider, De Faria had to draw the winner with his last bowl, to win 23-22.
In the other semi, Huwyler and Kape beat West End’s Bruce Colgan and Steve Walker 21-12.
The victory by Heal, her maiden Taranaki crown, and Howard, her third and all in the same event, was meritorious but not without plenty of nervous moments.
They started the final brightly, leading 10-3 through six ends. But three ends later Crawford and Adams had narrowed the margin to just one point.
Heal and Howard took the ascendancy again, creating an eight-shot advantage. They looked good, leading 20-12 after 16 ends. But Fitzroy with consecutives threes and a two brought it back to level.
West End took a brace on the penultimate, but Fitzroy held the advantage on the last head holding two, possibly three. However, Howard calmly landed among the counters to take second shot to enable her and Heal to sneak through by one point.
In the semis, West End beat Paritutu’s Briar Atkinson and Tina Atkinson-Watt 23-17 while Fitzroy defeated Paritutu’s Bridget Fletcher and Cathy Andrews 20-11.
CRAIG DE FARIA – 30 Taranaki titles
Open singles 1993, 2005, 2008, 2016, 2019 and 2020
Christmas pairs 2007, 2016, 2021, 2022 and 2024
Open triples 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2019
Centre/New Year fours 1997, 2008, 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2024
Open fours 1987, 2019 and 2022
Champion-of-champions pairs 2007, 2011 and 2012
Champion-of-champions fours 1990, 1999 and 2017