ON THE MATS

The Poverty Bay-East Coast indoor bowls team continued their run of success, winning the Hunt Trophy against Hawke’s Bay by 83 points to 79  in Napier.

PBEC started the first day of play well, winning two out of three fours games to lead 8-4.

In the singles, PBEC won eight games to Hawke’s Bay’s four to streak ahead, 24-12.

In Round 3 — pairs — the honours were shared with three wins each. That took the score to 33-21.

In the next round of fours, PBEC won two of the three games to lead 41-25.

The tide started to turn in the fifth round — singles again. Hawke’s Bay won seven games to Poverty Bay-East Coast’s five.

At the end of Day 1, PBEC led 51-39.

On Day 2, Hawke’s Bay changed their team. It seemed their selector put her Top 8 bowlers into two of the three teams, and it showed. They drew the sixth round — pairs again — 9-9.

Then they upped the tempo, and Hawke’s Bay won two of the three games of fours to close it to 64-56.

Poverty Bay-East Coast dug deep in Round 8 — singles again — to take six wins and a draw against Hawke’s Bay’s five wins and a draw. That made it 77-67.

Round 9 — pairs again — wasn’t pretty for PBEC. They were lucky to win two games to Hawke’s Bay’s four. with the final score 83-79.

If Hawke’s Bay had won just one game more, they would have won the event .