Scott Roberts earns a Taranaki bowls gold star
Ha¯wera identity Scott Roberts became the first player to earn a Taranaki bowls gold star award under the Tower club banner when he won the men’s Christmas pairs title with Mark Kuklinski at West End on Saturday.
The duo claimed the Auto City-sponsored event when they overcame West End’s Dennis Osborne and Bruce Phillips 25-15 in the decider.
And as the victory was Roberts’ fifth Taranaki title it secured his gold star.
Roberts is from rich bowling stock, with his maternal grandfather, Peter Ranford senior, one of the key drivers behind the Nolantown club. It was at Nolantown where Roberts’ uncles were also prominent, including Peter junior, a gold star holder himself, and where Roberts was first introduced to the sport.
Nolantown merged with Ha¯wera to form Tower in 2017 and, appropriately, Roberts, representing the new generation of bowlers in the south, becomes the first gold star recipient from the club.
His earlier titles came in the junior champion-of-champions singles (2013), the champion-ofchampions fours (2016), the senior champion-of-champions singles (2017) and the Open fours in January this year. The victory was also poignant for Kuklinski, who now has four Taranaki titles. He wore the shirt of his late fatherin-law, Neville Prowse, throughout the day. Prowse, who died on December 14, was patron of the Tower club.
Kuklinski and Roberts started the final in fine style, leading 14-2 after seven of the 21 ends. But the experienced Osborne and Phillips, both past winners, won the next five ends to close the game up at 14-12. After 15 ends, it had become 16-15 to Tower and a grandstand finish was on the cards.
Osborne set up the 16th head well, but Kuklinski drew an absolute stunner. It enabled Tower to take a single, and Kuklinski laid the foundations for a five-shot count on the following end, with Phillips astray with three attacking shots. A further single and a two rounded out the Tower scoring and the title.
In the semifinals, Osborne and Phillips edged out clubmates Dave Wilson and Dean Elgar 19-17, while Kuklinski and Roberts ended the meritorious run of Steve Muller and Jim Priest (Oakura) 24-10. Meanwhile, Paritutu’s Marlene Barrowman and Heather Johns won the Clegg’s Funeral Servicessponsored Taranaki women’ s open pairs at Hawera Park on Saturday morning. The duo defeated Girl Reweti and Lilac Pouwhare from the host club
19-14 in the final.
Early exchanges in the final were even, before a three on the fifth head put Paritutu in front
7-4. It was a lead they were not to relinquish. After 11 ends, Barrowman and Johns led 12-7, but a three to Reweti and Pouwhare on the 14th end tensed the game up at 13-11.
However, the decider came on end 16 when Paritutu took a four to open up a seven-shot advantage. Paritutu preserved their lead after that, restricting Hawera Park to singles, with the runners-up electing to not chase the necessary five shots on last end.