The Bill Gibbons trophy for Kapiti 10 years & under players was held at Levin Bowls over the weekend. The green was running exceptionally well with little wind in the mornings but the breeze got up a little in both afternoons. The top four teams went through to the finals after 6 games of qualifying, 4 on Saturday and another two Sunday morning. At the end of qualifying three Levin Bowls teams had made the finals. Robert Falconer, Arnold Taiaroa and Jim Paithorpe topped the leader board with 5 wins 34 ends 62 Shots. Last years beaten finalist skip Jim Bagnall was second also with five wins 30 ends 78 Shots. His team was a composite team made up of Levin Bowls President Trevor Turnbull and Central Levin member Ean Johnson. Third qualifier was another Levin Bowls team with 4 wins and a draw. Skip Peter Brown, Les Galloway & Doug Winter had the highest amount of ends with 35 and 87 points. The final team to qualify was the talented young team from Central Levin, consisting of Derek Taylor, David Gray (not so young) and Nicky Morgan with four wins, 31 Ends and 67 Shots. 1st played the 4th qualifier and 2nd played 3rd in the semi finals.
The Falconer team couldn’t find the form they had shown all weekend but to be fair they were put under huge pressure by some great lead bowls from Morgan, followed up with tight grouping from their #2 Gray and skip Taylor started to find his rhythm on the faster than the normal green they are used too, winning by the huge margin of 24-2. The other semi final was much closer and although Brown’s lead Winter had played brilliant lead bowls over the 6 qualifying games he struggled in this game which put pressure on Galloway and Brown. The early signs with Turnbull and Bagnall playing well was that it might be comfortable win for them however Galloway and Brown keep them in touch. Brown needed three on the last end to force an extra end, down two on the head he drove the jack into the ditch to give his team three shots but two was a long way away. Bagnall draw to the ditch cutting it down to one shot, Brown removed his shot with just enough weight to stay on the green, now Brown had two close shots and holding three again. Bagnall produced with his last bowl another magnificent shot finishing just short of the ditch. With Brown only getting two shots on the last end their competition was over losing the game by 1.
In the final the well balanced team from Central Levin was just too good. Their lead Morgan again produced extremely good lead bowls and helped by David Gray and their skip Taylor put huge pressure on Bagnall. Bagnall had a pretty good game but he couldn’t turn enough heads into their favour losing 12 – 4.
Levin Bowls thanks all the competitor and hoped they enjoyed the weekend. Our congratulations goes to this very fine well balanced team from Central Levin and we look forward to locking horns with all the under 10’s again in next years Bill Gibbons.
Photos from left to right representing Bowls Kapiti Coast Hazel Rose (Tournament Committee) handed out the trophy and prizes to the four teams. Photo 1 – Team Bagnall (runners up), Photo 2 – 3rd equal skips Brown & Falconer, Photo 3 – Peter Brown delivering a bowl, and Photo 4 – Paraparaumu Bob Gibson with Central Levin’s Gary Wylie (forefront)
