Bowls WEST COAST FOURS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 8

Bowls WEST COAST FOURS

Nelson Team Successful

(From Our Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH, Feb. 15. Hl* Malta! team from Nelson won the West Coast Bowling Centre’s annual fours championship at Greymouth today by defeating St. Albans in the final, 32-6, with the last three ends unplayed. The winning team comprised S. Hawkins, S. Weston, M. Lauria, and J. Corkhill; the St. Alban* team was G. E. Brooks, G. W. Hales. L. Newton, and W. Bell, Bell’s team could not produce the excellent form it had displayed in winning a very keenly contested semi-final. The player* never really settled down, although they managed to contain Maitai to single* or twos until the fifteenth end, when Corkhill scored a three. Bell then added a single, but another three and a single to the Maitai team assured it of a well-deserved win. The Nelson combination was «ix-up on the first four ends, and led 12-5 after 12 ends.

The semi-final between Bell and a Westport four, D. Harker, J. Luff, P. McKenzie, and T. McKenzie, was an exciting encounter, with the margin always close. Bell led 6-4 after seven end*, and his team was playing with better combination, with its drawing all round ahead of that of the Westport four.

McKenzie had to resort to driving; his son, at No. 3, also drove, while the No, 2 w'as sometimes called upon to play running shots. These tactics repeatedly robbed the St. Albans team of chances to add to it* total, and McKenzie took the lead for the first time with a couple on the sixteenth to make the board read 16-14 in his favour after the eighteenth end.

Bell drew level on the nineteenth. and went into the lead again with a single when McKenzie’s drives were astray. However, Westport evened the score on the last head, and this necessitated an extra end. Two very fine shots by Bell’s No. 3 placed his team In a good position, and when McKenzie failed with both drives, St. Albans won, 10-17.

The other semi-final was not quote so interesting. Coxhill, the eventual winner, was fortunate with some running shots which robbed Karoro after it had built up very good heads to be lying three or four shots. These tactics served the Maitai skip in good stead, and at various stages of the game he •cored a six, five and four. It was 9-9 after nine ends, but in the later stages Coxhill gradually forged ahead. The scores were:—

Bell (St. Albans) 18. McKenzie (Westnort) 17: Coxhill (Maitai) 26, Batty (karoro) 18. Final: Coxhill 22, Bell 6.