On the mats

The Poverty Bay-East Coast indoor bowls team retained the Presidents’ Trophy after their annual contest against Hawke’s Bay. Team members celebrating victory were, back (from left), Coralie Campbell-Whitehead (manager/reserve), Lois Lamont, Andrew Rickard, Rachael Rickard, Jay Casey, Mike Foster, Nanette Treloar and Keith Setter. Middle: Sean Haskins, Adam Rickard, Pauline Stone, Kayla Trowell, Dylan Foster, Warren Gibb and Malcolm Trowell. In front are Bryan Pulley and David Lynn. Picture supplied

Poverty Bay-East Coast indoor bowlers retained the Presidents’ Trophy when they beat Hawke’s Bay in Napier last weekend.

Success came by 82.5 points to 77.5.

Poverty Bay-East Coast have won this event every year since 2018.

The teams played seven rounds over two days. The first round of fours ended in a tie, both teams winning two games.

Poverty Bay-East Coast surged to the lead in the second round, winning seven of the eight pairs games to lead 29-11.

Hawke’s Bay clawed back points in the third round when Poverty Bay-East Coast won only seven of the 16 singles games. However, three wins from four games in the next round of fours left Poverty Bay-East Coast ahead, 55-33, at the end of the first day’s play.

On the second day, Poverty Bay-East Coast secured four wins and a draw from eight games of pairs in Round 5, then had seven more wins in the singles round. That made the score 82.5-61.5.

Poverty Bay had an unassailable lead heading into Round 7, which was just as well for them . . . they lost all four games in the last round of fours after some close contests.

Topping the scoring for Poverty Bay-East Coast were the fours team of Keith Setter, Jay Casey, Adam Rickard and Sean Haskins, who had five wins.

Nanette Treloar had 4.5 wins; Malcolm Trowell, Rachael Rickard and Pauline Stone had four; Warren Gibb had 3.5; Andrew Rickard, Bryan Pulley, David Lynn and Dylan Foster had three, and Mike Foster, Kayla Trowell and Lois Lamont had two.

Of particular note was a great result by 14-year-old Sean Haskins on debut with the representative team.