Aotea College bowling along
Aotea College keeps bowling over its rivals.
Aotea’s impressive record on the green and the mat was maintained at the College Sport Wellington indoor bowls championships in Porirua recently.
The four semi-finalists in the championship singles on June 26 were all from Aotea, as was the winning pair.
Bradley Down, a year 11 student, beat his schoolmate, Finbar McGuigan, 12- 8 in the singles final. The other semifinalists were defending champion Toss Rameka and his older brother, Jacob, who has won the title previously.
Seamus Curtin and Latisha Tuia combined to beat Colleen Moffat and Hamish Moffat (Naenae) 11-4 in the pairs final.
Down, a semi-finalist last year, plays indoor bowls largely to help his outdoor game, which is his main sporting interest.
‘‘There is a lot you can learn from indoor that you can use in outdoor,’’ he said.
‘‘ This was the third year I entered the [indoor] tournament. I wasn’t that good at first, but I practised a bit this year and was more prepared.’’
Down will contest the national indoor secondary schools championships, at Porirua in late August.
Meanwhile, his outdoor career received a boost when he was among three Aotea College bowlers named to trial for a North Island team that will contest an inter-island series early next year.
He will be joined in the 28- member training squad by schoolmates Curtin and Brady Amer.
The North v South series is part of a new high-performance programme for Bowls New Zealand, with the emphasis on talent identification and development.
Aotea was also well represented in the Wellington regional under18 outdoor bowls teams this year.
Amer, Down, Curtin and McGuigan were in the five-person boys team that played against Victoria (Australia) in April and Tuia and Jessica Hall were in the girls team.
Amer and Hall also won the singles titles at the College Sport championships in February.
Down, who had his summer season interrupted by a broken arm, recorded his most notable success in outdoor when winning the Wellington champion of champions 1-5 year singles title.
‘‘The junior grades are based on playing experience rather than age,’’ he said.
Aotea College bowls coach Rachel Wybourne-Curtin said it was very pleasing to see the large number of schools represented at the College Sport competition.