Zone final brings best out of players

It was North Otago who scored the first win at the Eastern Zone indoor bowls finals held in Timaru at the weekend.

In the mixed fours, they got off to a good start by beating Canterbury in their first game and followed this up with a win against South Canterbury and a draw with Ashburton.

The Masters Fours was a tighter contest with North Otago and South Canterbury each having two wins and 15 ends so it came down to points where South Canterbury had 26 points to North Otago’s 24.

The singles produced a battle between two players who have represented New Zealand in Kylie Gould from Canterbury and Matt Bassett from Ashburton.

Both players had won their games against North Otago and South Canterbury and were trading ends in this match.

With Bassett leading by one going into the final end he had to play a pressure shot with his final bowl as Gould had upset the head he was building.

She was holding three shots however, he remained calm and played a sensible draw bowl to take that end to win the game.

Gurjit Singh also scored points for North Otago on Saturday, winning the year 1-5 singles.

Local players Quentin Sullivan got to the semifinals while Alistair Coles made the quarterfinals.

Pairs were played on Sunday.

In the year 1-5 category a round robin of seven games was played and five teams finished with four wins.

South Canterbury featured in first and second place with the pair of Darryl Fowler and Neville Herbert who had 38 ends and 64 points ahead of Quentin Sullivan and John Dawson who were on 36 ends and 57 points.

The other pairs who also had four wins were third-placed Gurjit Singh and Nathan Barnes from North Otago and two Canterbury teams being fourth-placed Norm and Chris Ellis and Diane Wood and Deb Bowden who were fifth.

Canterbury’s Mike King and Ann Graham took the mixed pairs by winning their three games.

Ashburton were second with two wins, South Canterbury had one win and North Otago were in fourth place.

The South Canterbury Masters Fours team of David Mealings, Lyn Brown, Mary Mealings and Kelvin Lockyer and the year 1-5 pairs winners Darryl Fowler and Neville Herbert will be going to compete in the super finals against other zone winners in Pukekohe in September along with the other category winners from the weekend.

This Saturday is the Matariki Classic Fours and Pairs tournament and on Sunday the following players will be playing triples in Timaru against North Otago:

L Brown, S Taylor, E Duffield; A Jenks, S Austin, Q Sullivan; N Gould D Fowler, G Harris; R Wood, D Warwood, J Briggs; B Black, N Herbert, K Austin; M Blissett, J Blissett and A M Blissett. — SC Indoor Bowls publicity officer Carol Dawson