ON THE MATS

The Poverty Bay East Coast junior indoor bowls team who came home with the spoils from an inter-association tournament in Hamilton are, back row (from left): Quaylahan Casey, Jaykwan Casey, Rachael Rickard, Kayla Trowell and Dylan Foster. Front: Souta Preddey, Sean Haskins, Adam Rickard and Zoe Trowell. Picture supplied

Talented Poverty Bay East Coast bowler Matthew Foster flew the district flag high as a member of the North Island team in their annual clash with the South Island in Ashburton.

Foster, 19, played lead in the men’s fours team alongside Ali Wilson (North Taranaki) Paul Wright (Auckland) and Shaun Blackbourn (Waikato).

The four started the inter-island clash with a 19-14 loss to their Southern counterparts in the first of three games.

In Game 2, North dug deep over the 18-end, three-hour-plus clash to win 21-10.

Game 3 was a close encounter and again went for over three hours. Concentration was crucial and Foster’s team showed they had what it took to triumph 17-14 .

Each island team comprised 10 women and 10 men.

The North team started on the back foot, winning only the women’s singles, pairs and fours in Round 1 to trail 10-6.

In Round 2, they pulled up their socks to win every game bar the women’s singles. North collected 14 points to the South’s two to take a commanding 20-12 lead.

In the third and final round, North won four of the eight games for an overall 28-20 victory.

Foster, a member of the reigning New Zealand fours champions, blended in well with his North crew.

He played his part in the team win with some great draw bowls and picked up an inter-island-winning medal.

Foster has racked up 14 centre titles so far and is showing the skill and attitude that could one day see him make the New Zealand team.

The Poverty Bay East Coast under-18 team of Dylan Foster, Adam Rickard, Kayla Trowell, Rachael Rickard, Souta Preddy, Sean Haskins, Quaylahan Casey, Zoe Trowell and Jaykwan Casey travelled to Hamilton for inter-association clashes last weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, the team were far too good for North Taranaki, winning their challenge shield match 53-7.

On Day 2, PBEC again showed their class to win the Membery Pearce Shield with 75.5 points. Tauranga were second on 61, followed by Waikato and North Taranaki.

The entire PBEC team showed their class over the weekend, shrugging off the long trip on Saturday to fire on both days .

An eight-strong Poverty Bay East Coast team travelled on Sunday to Ōpōtiki to play Bay of Plenty in the annual Nolan Richardson Trophy fixture.

The team of Arnold Hutchins, Bryan Pulley, Nanette Treloar, Warren Edlin, James McIlroy, Pauline Stone, Doc Tipene and Andrew Rickard started the day on a bad note.

They lost both fours games to be 8-0 down and while they came back well, the damage had been done and they lost by only two points.