De Faria achieves bowling first

West End’s Craig De Faria has won the race to become the first bowler, male or female, to win 25 Taranaki titles.

De Faria hit the milestone on Saturday when he skipped his side to victory in the South Taranaki Club-sponsored men’s Centre fours at Hawera Park.

It was the second-straight win in the event for De Faria’s quartet of Jordan Linn, Dave Wilson and Steve Walker, and their third triumph in six years, clearly illustrating their current dominance in the team game.

But the final was a close affair, with the West Enders just edging past a Tower team of Clive Phillips, Brendan Anderson, Phil Kuklinski and Grant Anderson 19-16.

After Anderson had led 9-4 after four ends in the decider, De Faria’s side called the tune in the middle stages creating a 16-12 advantage after 14 ends.

However, the Tower team climbed back with a single and a three to level the scores with two ends remaining.

Anderson held two shots on the next, but De Faria was successful in driving off both shots to secure a brace.

West End held the edge on the last end with Anderson narrowly missing what would have been a match-winning jack trail with his final delivery.

In the semifinals, De Faria pulled away over the closing ends to beat Tower’s Bruce Phillips 20-12, while Anderson accounted for Paritutu’s Ian Andrews 19-9.

Two tied at the top

The final round of the Vospers-sponsored Taranaki women’s division one interclub, scheduled for December 1, will be a virtue final between Paritutu Green and Hawera Park after a further three rounds were completed at Tower on Saturday.

The two sides sit at the top of the field on 28 points, meaning the winner of the fixture will take overall honours. Fitzroy (23) and New Plymouth (22) are the next closest clubs.

The last round should be an even contest, with both pairs now having a perfect record of six wins from as many games – Barbara Batley and Cathy Andrews (Paritutu) and Girl Reweti and Kristin Stampa (Hawera Park).

Paritutu’s singles player, Kileigh Barber, after a one-point defeat to West End’s Susan Cottam in the opening round on Saturday, made amends with a 21-5 trouncing of Fitzroy’s Rhonda Adams in the next game. Barber then sneaked past Chris Commane (Opunake) 21-17.

However, the Paritutu four, skipped by Heather Johns, was less dominant, losing twice. Hawera Park continued to get a good return from Ella Smailes in the singles and Pauline Kennedy’s four, with both posting two further wins.

Meanwhile, the opening day’s play in the men’s Paul and Sharon Spiers-sponsored interclub was badly affected by rain on Sunday. Only one section managed to get started. All sides will return to the same clubs this coming Sunday to try again.