Taranaki falls short in quest for glory
Grant Hassall
Taranaki was unsuccessful in its quests for glory at the New Zealand intercentre bowls event in Wellington over the weekend.
Both the women’s and men’s sides made positive starts to their campaigns but came up short against the bigger teams in their sections, missing qualification for the quarterfinals.
The Revital Fertilisers Taranaki men won their first three matches over South Canterbury (2.5-0.5), Counties Manukau (2-1) and Kapiti (3-0).
But losses to Dunedin (0-3) and Wellington (1-2) relegated Taranaki to third in the section, with the last-round match against South Otago not even played.
Darren Goodin continued his excellent results in the competition. He collated four wins from the five rounds, including a win over Wellington’s Raymond Martin. His only defeat was to Dunedin’s Roger Stevens when the time expired with Goodin 24-22 behind.
Aidan Zittersteijn and Dean Elgar won twice in the pairs, their last-bowl loss to Wellington’s Robbie Bird and Finbar Mcguigan being particularly frustrating. A victory there would almost certainly have seen Taranaki qualify.
The four of Bruce Colgan, Kurt Smith, Steve Walker and Craig De Faria opened with a draw and two wins. Then came a narrow loss to Dunedin before they were thumped by Blake Signal’s Wellington quartet.
Wellington made it back-to-back titles when they defeated Whanganui 2-1 in the final. Kaylin Huwyler, following his Taranaki singles triumph the previous weekend, gave a good account of himself in the singles for Whanganui with wins in the three knockout games.
In the women’s games, Taranaki commenced with a 2-1 loss to Whanganui. Briar Atkinson posted a strong 25-12 singles win, while the pair of Alethea Rowlands and Chris Commane went down 17-13. The four of Lesley Te Awa, Tina Atkinson-watt, Jackie Moeahu and Gale Fache were nosed out 15-14.
Taranaki then beat South Canterbury 2.50.5 and Hawke’s Bay 2-1 to give themselves every chance of qualifying.
However, they fell 0-3 to Auckland and 1-2 to Marlborough. Whanganui and Marlborough were the two provinces to qualify.
Atkinson won three games from five in the singles, the pair managed just one draw and the four also won three.
Nelson defeated Northland to claim the title for the second successive year.
Meanwhile, the final four sides have been found in the Dean File-sponsored Hugh Moss junior pairs after six rounds reduced the field of 47 teams on coastal greens.
The surviving pairs were Alesha and Jimmy Quay (Paritutu), Gavin Benton and Simon Rowe (Fitzroy), Terry Fieldes and Rick Caskey (Urenui) and Shae Fleming and Joel Chard (Rahotu). The remaining games will be played at Stratford-avon as part of the champion-of-champions finals weekend on April 27-28.