Indoor bowls: Owhata on fire in fours championship

The successful Owhata club's team Christina Kingi (left), James Schuster, Keith Richardson and Gavin Rennie.

Owhata Club's James Schuster, Gavin Rennie, Keith Richardson and Christina Kingi have won the Bay of Plenty Indoor Bowls Centre's Championship Fours title at the Ngongotaha Hall.

This win earned Rennie his second Bay of Plenty Gold Star which is awarded for 10 Bay of Plenty titles. Schuster won his ninth title, Richardson his second and Kingi her sixth.

In the final, over nine ends, they defeated Ohope's Paul Guest, Maureen Harris, Elaine Howard and Stu Carney 11-5.

To reach the final Schuster defeated Ohope's Tony Reynolds, Gary Hunt, Gil Reynolds and Wendy Cheese 11-2 while Guest defeated Edgecumbe's Simon Hatcher, Paul Gooch, Lance Hansen and Michelle Hansen 9-2.

The final was an exciting match with Schuster scoring one shot on the first end. On the second end Rennie trailed the jack to the back corner of the mat then drew the second shot with his next bowl. Schuster added the third shot with Guest running at the head to reduce the count to two, Schuster led 3-0. The third end saw Schuster draw two perfect bowls to the head with Guest drawing to cut the count down to two Schuster led 5-0.

Guest came back on the third end to score three shots to trail 3-5. On the fifth end Guest was down on the head and drew the jack back to hold four shots. Schuster tipped a bowl into the head to hold one, Guest was unable to get the shot with Schuster going further ahead 6-3. On the sixth end Rennie played a run shot to open the head up with Guest ending up holding one. Guest had a chance to turn an Owhata bowl out for three but tipped an Owhata bowl in to reduce the count to one. On the seventh end Schuster ran an Ohope bowl out to score three to lead 9-4. On the ninth end Owhata wrapped up the match with a two to win 11-3.