Kaye Easton (left) and Marise Raklander are the 2025 Poverty Bay East Coast indoor bowls centre women's pairs champions.
Kaye Easton (left) and Marise Raklander are the 2025 Poverty Bay East Coast indoor bowls centre women's pairs champions.
A life member and father and son combinations were to the fore in the Poverty Bay East Coast Indoor Bowls women’s and men’s pairs events last Sunday.
Six women’s and five men’s teams competed at the Waerenga-a-Hika Hall.
Two teams qualified from preliminary rounds to contest the women’s final - Marise Raklander and PBEC life member Kaye Easton, and Rachael Rickard and Tina Smith.
The experience of Raklander and Easton was evident from the start in their 11-6 victory.
They led 2-0 after a closely contended first end but while Rickard and Smith played some great bowls, Raklander and Easton applied constant pressure with consistent draw bowls, which gave them an 8-0 advantage after four ends.
On end five, Rickard played a great upshot with her last bowl to take the shot, then dragged the kitty on the next end for another shot, narrowing the deficit to 8-2.
After some great draw bowls by both lead bowlers, Raklander got the upper hand on the seventh end for a 10-2 lead.
Back came Rickard and Smith, picking up four points on the eighth end. However, the four-point difference proved too tough to overcome in the last end.
It was the 19th centre title for Raklander and 52nd for Easton.
Matthew Foster and father Mike won the Poverty Bay East Coast indoor bowls centre men's pairs last weekend.
Two father and son teams qualified from the men’s section - Matthew and Mike Foster and Jay and Jaykwan Casey.
The Fosters won a down-to-the-wire final 6-5.
They won the first two ends to be 3-0 up, but the Caseys fought back to lead 4-3 after five ends.
Matthew drew the kitty with the last bowl on the sixth end to level the score 4-4.
Following a back-and-forth tussle on the next two ends, the score was again level at 5-all heading into the last end.
With the Fosters holding shot, Jay delivered the last bowl, but left it a little short.
The win continued Matthew’s domination of PBEC centre events. It was third title for the year and 18th title overall. It was a 10th centre crown for Mike.
The representative team for the Hone Trophy in Tauranga on April 26 and the Bill Moore/Sunshine trophies combined event in Whakatāne on April 27 are - Keith Setter, Malcolm Trowell, Jay Casey, Bryan Pulley, Matthew Foster, Dylan Foster, Kayla Foster, Sean Haskins, David Lynn, Warren Gibb, Marise Raklander, Rachael Rickard, Andrew Rickard, Adam Rickard, Mike Foster and Tina Smith. Team manager is Kaye Easton.
