Three games stood out for team skip Nathan.
Against eventual runners-up Nelson, Nathan and Matthew were one shot down going into the last end, but were holding shot when Nathan prepared to deliver his last bowl.
He saw the possibility of gaining four shots if he drew his bowl and hit the kitty (white ball). He succeeded with the shot and instead of salvaging a draw — worth one point — they earned two points for the 11-8 win.
It was their first game but proved crucial, as Nelson’s points tally ended up two less than that of the Poverty Bay pair.
Against Manawatu, Poverty Bay earned a draw when Trowell, with his last bowl, drove at one of his team’s bowls at the front and knocked it on to the kitty, which squirted out to the side where two Poverty Bay bowls gave them a potential two-shot advantage. The Manawatu skip’s last bowl failed to change the situation and the Bay went from 10-8 down to level at 10-all.
The Bay’s only loss, 6-5 to Southland, was also a game of fine margins.
Nathan needed to gain two shots with his last bowl if they were to draw, but he gained only one.
Nathan started playing indoor bowls five years ago, attending club nights with his father Malcolm when they lived in Taupo.
“I liked it straight away . . . the people you get to meet, and the way the game challenges you and makes you learn.”
Nathan also plays cricket, football and a little lawn bowls, but counts cricket and indoor bowls as his favourite codes.
Bowls coaching has come from “Poppa” Bruce Easton (mother Jenny’s father) and father Malcolm, and Nathan has defeated and been defeated by both mentors on the indoor bowls mat. He has nine centre titles to his name.
Nathan will be unable to play in next year’s development pairs tournament as by then he will have had six years’ experience in the code.
His cousin Matthew, while six months older, will still be eligible as he started playing only four years ago.
Matthew said he would probably enter with his brother Dylan, 13. Nathan, Matthew and Dylan are all Gisborne Boys’ High School students.
Matthew singled out the draw with Manawatu as their standout game in the pairs tournament: “We were going bowl for bowl. It was pretty intense and close.”
Cricket is his main sport, but in winter he also plays football. His indoor bowls prowess has earned him five centre titles. David Lynn and uncle Malcolm Trowell were his coaching influences in a sport he enjoys because “it’s a thinking game”.
Both Matthew and Nathan wanted to thank the indoor bowls community, who helped with expenses for the tournament, and their families — parents Mike and Karyn Foster and Malcolm and Jenny Trowell, and shared grandparents and multiple indoor bowls titleholders Bruce and Kaye Easton.
Matthew said his next big indoor bowls assignment would probably be next month’s Auckland Masters, an open tournament where his pairs partner would be Auckland bowler Niall Vincer. They had become friends at national age-group tourneys, and in the Masters could well meet Gisborne pairing Malcolm Trowell and Dylan Foster.
