De Faria in superb form for open singles victory
West End’s Craig De Faria has successfully retained his Taranaki men’s bowls open singles title with another virtuoso performance over the weekend.
The culmination was a 21-8 triumph in the final of the Brebner Print-sponsored event at Paritutu on Monday against regular teammate Jordan Linn.
It was De Faria’s sixth open singles win. He now has 24 Taranaki titles, which places him firstequal on the all-time list with John Roberts. Playing on a super-quick Paritutu front green, De Faria looked at the peak of his powers. He drew superbly. And when necessary he attacked with accuracy.
Linn started the final with a soft brace. But it was a false hope with De Faria consistently leaving little space.
In the semifinals, De Faria trailed for the opening half of his match against Paritutu’s Darren Goodin. However, three threes thereafter created the impetus for him to move to a 21-15 victory.
Linn upset West End’s Dean Elgar 21-19 in the other semi. Linn called the tune, leading 15-5, before Elgar stormed home late, hitting the lead 18-17. But Linn got the nod in an exciting conclusion.
Paritutu’s Kileigh Barber upstaged her more illustrious opponents to win the Taranaki women’s open singles, which was also finalised at Paritutu on Monday.
Barber ran away over the second half of the final of the Jean Sandel-sponsored event against Hawera Park’s Kristin Stampa, winning 21-9.
Stampa had held the edge for the first few ends of the decider, before Barber turned on an excellent display as her confidence grew. She has previously won two junior champion-of-champions singles titles.
Barber had got out of jail against clubmate Cathy Andrews in the semifinal, winning 21-20. Stampa won 21-11 over Opunake’s Chris Commane in the other semi.
One of the highlights of the women’s singles was the qualification of 15-year-old school girl Briar Atkinson (Lepperton). Atkinson, who has been playing for less than 12 months, won the necessary three games from four to be among the 12 qualifiers. She put up a bold showing in post section, too, before falling 21-15 to Commane.