On the mats

Singles success . . . Rachael Rickard is the Poverty Bay East Coast women's singles indoor bowls champion while Mike Foster won the men's title.Picture supplied

by Corals

The local indoor bowls 2024 season started with the Opening Trios competition at the Cosmopolitan Club on Sunday, March 10. Instead of the usual format where pre-formed teams enter the competition, this year a single-entry format was adopted to encourage some of the newer bowlers to enter.

Teams were selected at random from a list of leads, twos and skips, which made for some evenly matched games.

Only two teams made the post-qualification round, both with three wins from four games.

The final was closely contested and showcased the skills of some of Gisborne's talented junior bowlers, along with those of the more experienced senior bowlers. The winning trio were Warren Gibb (skip), Mike Foster and 14-year-old Quaylahn Casey.

In the final, they had a 15-8 victory over Dylan Foster, 18, Adam Rickard, 14, and Sean Haskins, 14. Having lost to them in a preliminary round, the Gibb trio were keen to turn the tables in the final, and they accomplished that in style.

Up-and-coming junior Casey played steadily with well-placed lead bowls, while Mike Foster played consistently good bowls and Gibb displayed the class that won him a share of the masters' national fours title in 2023.

Gibb's team edged ahead 4-2 in the third end after securing three points when a well-placed bowl from Gibb left his team with a group of bowls near the end of the mat.

They were still ahead after six ends, at 8-4, but a great bowl by Dylan Foster on the seventh end moved the kitty towards his bowls and levelled the score at 8-8.

Not to be outdone, Gibb wrested back the lead for his team in the following end when he delivered his bowl with pinpoint accuracy to take out an opponent's bowl that had been holding "shot". That put the Gibb trio four points ahead, and they won the last end to secure victory.

This was the first centre title for Casey, the fifth for Mike Foster (earning him a silver star) and the 22nd for Gibb.

The women's and men's singles were held at the Gisborne Intermediate Hall on Sunday, March 17.

Rachael Rickard's experience in the junior ranks came to the fore as she beat defending champion Pauline Stone 10-5 in the women's final.

The semifinals were closely contested. Rickard beat Coralie Campbell-Whitehead 12-9, and Stone beat Nanette Treloar after an extra end to win the match 9-7.

In the men's singles final, Mike Foster beat Jay Casey 10-2 after both finalists had won their semifinals by a single shot.

Foster needed an extra end to beat his son Dylan 8-7 in one semifinal, while Casey led 8-1 after five ends against David Lynn in the other semifinal, then held on to win the match 8-7.

It was the second year in a row that Casey was runner-up, while for Mike Foster it was a continuation of the consistent form that he showed as a member of the winning Opening Trios team the previous week.

These singles victories took Mike Foster's centre title tally to six, and Rachael Rickard's to seven. Rickard also won this event in 2022.

The quality of bowls displayed in both events builds on the successful results from 2023 and augurs well for the season ahead.