Contrasting reactions during the fours game between East Coast and Hawkes Bay at Levin Central Bowling Club.
Contrasting reactions during the fours game between East Coast and Hawkes Bay at Levin Central Bowling Club.
Powerhouse Wellington Bowls teams flexed their muscle to win back-to-back Central Region Octagonal Tournament titles at the weekend.
Led by an unbeaten Seamus Curtin in the singles, Wellington again finished on top once overall scores were tallied at the Central Bowling Club in Levin.
After 234 matches it was Wellingtonwith the most overall points with 21.5 wins ahead of Manawatū with 19, and five wins ahead of Taranaki with 16.5. The half-point denotes a drawn match.
Wellington won the corresponding tournament in New Plymouth last season and brought with them a strong team of 10, joining a top field that read like a "who's who" of Central Region bowlers.
Also scattered among the Levin green were the likes of Ray Park, Ray Martin, Robbie Bennett, Mark Noble, Aiden Zittersteijn, Finbar McGuigan, Ben King, Robbie Bird and Caleb Hope.
Seamus Curtin in action at Levin Central Bowling Club.
But it was the Wellington outfit that were hard to topple all weekend. Seamus Curtin, who was also a New Zealand development player, showed what a talent he was, beating eventual runner-up Bruce Winterburn from Wanganui 25-14 in their match.
There was a shining light for the home side with the Kāpiti triples team of Graeme Corlett, Dereck Taylor and Paul Rybinski going through the tournament undefeated, accounting for Wellington 18-13 when those sides met.
Put in context, the only other side to go through the tournament unbeaten were the Manawatū Fours team of Mark Noble, Steven Toms, Terry Curtis and Tim Hook.
Mark Noble skipped a Manawatu fours team that were unbeaten all weekend.
Noble, a New Zealand parajack representative, showed his class with some deft bowling at crucial stages over the weekend.
The pairs tournament was won by Paul Harrison and Leighton Shanks from East Coast, doing enough to hold on after dropping games to Manawatū and Hawkes Bay.
More than tournament honours were at stake though, with several selectors from their respective regions travelling to the tournament, among them national selector Peter Bellis.
Ray Park winds up in the fours for Wanganui.
Those selectors now had an unenviable task as each region was now painfully forced to shed three players ahead of the national Inter-centre seven-aside tournament in Wellington in March, although there would be one player permitted to travel as a reserve.
Kāpiti Coast Centre vice-president and selector Graham Fairburn was pleased with the way the Levin Central green played, with bowlers commentating on how well it had played.
Gary Wylie from the Kapiti centre in the fours at Levin Central Bowling Club.
There weren't many spare beds in town with many staying locally, exhausting motel space.
Further south at the Paraparaumu Bowling Club, the Wellington women's team made it a clean-sweep, finishing ahead of Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Kāpiti Coast after final points were tallied.
New Zealand national singles title holder Nicole Toomey won the triples event with Sarah Taukamo and Kay Martin, while Dale Rainer and Kaaren Guilford took out the pairs
The Taranaki team of Trish Howard, Rhonda Adams, Susan Cottam and Anne Brophy won the fours event, while Sheryl Viggers from Hawkes Bay won the singles overall.
Neil Bovey skipped the Kapiti Coast pairs team with Geoff Bovey.
