Tracey van Tuel gained the bragging rights over family members when they helped the Otago indoor bowls team regain the Strang Trophy by beating Southland on Saturday.
Van Tuel, her sister Amanda Katipa and father, Craig Cowan, were members of the Otago A team that beat Southland by 54 match points to 42 at the Otago Indoor Bowls Centre in Dunedin.
Otago also regained the Invercargill Licensing Trust Cup when it also beat Southland on game points 424 to 387.
But Southland did not return home empty-handed because its B team came from behind on the sixth and final round to narrowly beat Otago B 49-47.
Van Tuel grew up on the family sheep and beef farm at Berwick with her sister and played indoor bowls with the family when she was at school.
She then had a long gap of 15 years before rejoining the sport five years ago.
Her father has played bowls for 34 years and won eight Otago titles.
Her mother, Trish Cowan, has played for the South Island.
On Saturday van Tuel was the best-performed family member and won five of her six games.
Sister Amanda won four games and drew one and Craig Cowan won four games.
Van Tuel was a member of a winning triples team with Max Grey and Ross Garner and they all won five games.
David Webb, who joined the team in the fours, also had five wins.
Garner (54), an administration manager, has played indoor bowls for 43 years and won 15 Otago titles.
He played a key role in the triples team’s 7-5 win over Southland’s Jan Lamb, Neil Lawson and Greg Heads.
Garner, the skip, lost his side three points and gave Southland a 4-3 lead when he killed the fourth end.
But he made up for it two ends later when he pushed out the Southland shot bowl and nudged in for two shots.
Craig Cowan and Kristen Gould beat Southland’s Belinda Peard and Peter Carnie 13-7 after being gifted a bonus three points when a desperate last bowl by Carnie killed the end.
But the pair were beaten in their sixth and final game by the Southland combination of New Zealand representative Gary Low and Darryn Turner 10-5.
Low was the only bowler to win his six games.
The other unbeaten bowlers were Matthew Heads, Ann Mackie and Vanessa Dawson, who were members of his fours team and won five games and drew one.
