Bowls titles decided

The Marlborough Open Pairs and Fours tournaments were staged at the Simcox Stadium over the weekend.

On Saturday, 24 pairs took part in the Open Pairs.

In the semifinals, Greg and Fiona Edwards (Motueka) beat Tony Jones and Debbie Wearing (Strand) 11-4, while Steven Grant and Natasha Neal defeated Kevin Wills and Kath Gilchrist (Grovetown) 13-6.

Steven and Natasha then went on to retain their Open Pairs title comfortably, beating Greg and Fiona in the final 9-2.

The plate title was won by Lois Randall and Kiri Bond (Blenheim Club) with a 10-4 win over Peter Hanley and Marie Grainger (Nelson).

On Sunday, the Marlborough Open Fours tournament was played.

Nathan and Lewis Della Bosca, Natasha Neal and Vanesa Wall won the first semi-final 11-5 against Greg Edwards, Lee Fleming, Daniel Watson and Fiona Edwards. Lois Randall, Steven Grant, Kiri Bond and Julian Adams came through to win 14-3 over Tony Hitchcock, Diana North, Bruce Hitchcock and Jan Ham in the second semifinal.

The final was clear cut, Nathan Della Bosca's team taking the early advantage, leading 7-0 after four ends and going on to win 13-1 after seven ends.

The Open Fours plate was won by Kevin Wills, Kath Gilchrist, Tony Clark and Betty Schofield who scored a 16-5 win over Brian Booker, Rex Howard, Angela McKenzie and Johnny Sigglekow.

Next weekend the Marlborough rep team travels to Timaru to play in the National Inter-Provincial Championship.

This is a new format for teams of eight players to compete at the same level against other teams from five other regions from around New Zealand and is played over five rounds of fours, pairs and singles.

The Marlborough team is: Lois Randall, Steven Grant, Kiri Bond, Julian Adams, Tony Hitchcock, Nathan Della Bosca, Tony Jones and Kath Gilchrist. Reserve - Glen Hurcomb.