Tenpin bowling: Rebekah Baxter, Emilee Adams aiming to strike but home lanes not a given

Rebekah Baxter ensures gear at Superstrike Hastings is in good nick while practising for the first hosting of the NZ Junior/Youth Tenpin Bowling Nationals in Hastings. Photo/Duncan Brown

Living and breathing tenpin bowling is a given to Hawke's Bay players Rebekah Baxter and Emilee Adams.

That's because the pair work at the Superstrike Tenpin Bowling Centre in Hastings.

But how much that familiarity factor will kick in will be tested when Baxter and Adams compete in the New Zealand Junior/Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship and the TBNZ National Youth Teams' event to be staged for the first time outside of the main centres.

"I think it's exciting but it's also a pressure to do well to kind of prove to everyone that Hawke's Bay has got what it takes to stage a nationals," says Baxter before the centre hosts the events from Monday.

Tenpin Bowling NZ reckons its the highest number of entries in recent times, according to the chairman of Tenpin Bowling Hawke's Bay Foundation, Preston Epplett.

"It's really rewarding to finally play in our home centre because we always go away for nationals," says Baxter who will compete in the youth girls' under-21 category of the nationals, which start on Monday before the teams' blends in from Thursday to Saturday.

The 20-year-old, in her sixth nationals, is among more than 80 youngsters who will roll their arms on the new synthetic lanes at the centre, along Omahu Rd, that have been labelled "as good as any in Australasia".

The other three divisions, for both genders, are junior U18s, junior bantam U13s and junior graded U18s. The boys' average breaks are under 160 and the girls 150.

In each grade, players will bowl in singles, doubles and fours categories where the combined scores will count towards the all-events competition.

The champs have attracted current national junior representatives Josh Stretton, Marcus Houghton, Dayna Haylock and Monica Sopi.

The 2011 junior graded champion Christian Karatau (at age 8) will fly the flag with Adams, who was placed runner-up in the six-person teams' event in October last year. The others are Alex Zurcher, Karlos Adams and Sophie-lee Leydesorff.

The teams' section has attracted entries from 10 centres.

Baxter, who was the 2014 junior girls' runner-up, was also the guest player for the Counties-Manukau side who won the crown at the Pins Lincoln Rink in Auckland.

But the former Hastings Girls' High School pupil cautions against reading too much into the rub off the turf at home.

"It kind of doesn't matter if you're there 24-7, you know, if you're not getting kind of on the lanes then, obviously, you're not going to do well," says Baxter who averages an hour a day in training and as the oldest feels a sense of guidance is required from her while also appreciating they can feed off each other as well.

She expects schoolgirl Dayna Haylock, of Kapiti Coast, to set the pace but is familiar with the foes after having run the youth gauntlets.

"I guess it's a game of chance because we all bowl very well," she says.

Adams, a home school correspondence student, has posted a break of 246 in a maximum of 300 (12 strikes in a row).

"I have been practising every day for the last two months," says the 16-year-old who is looking forward to the junior graded youth section next week.

The centre cafe worker came close to winning a junior grade a few years ago and is averaging 160.

"It's like home to me and I'm really close to Barb who is like family," says Adams of centre owner Barbara Nonu.

"I want to win it this year," says the teenage daughter of Keith Adams and Katrina Torwick. Her forte is a curve ball with some spin.