Bowls: Reed leads Tauranga charge

Hawke's Bay's Stephen Clinch plays a delivery during the weekend's play at the Paterson Trophy indoor bowls events in Napier. Photo/Warren Buckland

Alex Reed was the toast of the Tauranga team which won back-to-back zone two Paterson Trophy indoor bowls titles in Napier at the weekend.

"Alex played lead for us at last year's Welch Trophy and we promoted him to a three berth for this weekend and he won nine of his 12 games," Tauranga captain and seven-time national champion Mike Phipps explained after his team booked a second consecutive appearance at the Welch Trophy tournament, the symbol of national supremacy to be played in Pukekohe from September 5-7.

Tauranga beat favourites Waikato by seven points after starting yesterday's second day of play half a point behind Waikato.

"We're not good frontrunners and more comfortable coming from behind. We've got a plan which involves attempting to do three Welch Trophy tournaments. Everyone knew their job and we brought it home today," Phibbs said.

"We were lucky we drew Waikato in six of our games today so we had control of our destiny," he added.

Hawke's Bay finished fourth, 20.5 points behind Tauranga. Bruce Dalton with 7.5 wins, Darryl Le Claire with 7 and David Vesty with 6.5 were the Bay's top performers.

Tauranga will join zone one winners Thames Valley, zone three winners Manawatu, zone four winners North Wellington, zone five winners Ashburton and zone six winners Southland in the battle for the Welch Trophy.

Last year's winners North Taranaki failed to qualify and finished second to Manawatu in the zone three play-offs.

Final zone two points: Tauranga 90.5, Waikato 83.5, Bay of Plenty 74, Hawke's Bay 70, Poverty Bay 42.