Wanganui's Indoor Bowls challenge with North Taranaki goes down to wire

Wanganui's Ian Crighton considers his options in the Britton Cup meeting with North Taranaki at Jubilee Stadium on Saturday morning. Photo / Bevan Conley

It came right down to the wire, but the Wanganui Indoor Bowls representative team was not able to snatch the Britton Shield from North Taranaki at Jubilee Stadium on Saturday.

The visitors were a strong team, with the core of this North Taranaki squad having been four time winners of the Welch Trophy, one of the top prizes on the national provincial level.

Behind on overall points early, Wanganui made up some ground as they trailed 40-32 at the lunchtime break.

Going into the final round of pairs games, the difference was now 63-57 to North Taranaki, with Wanganui needing to win most of the eight pairs matchups to get up.

Despite a great effort to further close the gap, North Taranaki held on to win 73.5 to 70.5.

The Britton Shield has been played regularly between the provinces since 1978.

The Wanganui team was: C Bourne, L Bourne, I Crighton, Y Crighton, W Freeman, S Hackett, L Heywood, A Kendrick, B Kenny, M Klitscher, G Lyne, B McCarthy, C Pinker, W Pinker, L Sorensen, L Zimmerman.

The Britton Shield