Page 4 - Autumn 2018 Final

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NEW ZEALAND WIN THE INAUGURAL
NEW ZEALAND WIN THE INAUGURAL
CARPET BOWLS WORLD CUP
CARPET BOWLS WORLD CUP
Carpet Bowls International - England v New Zealand v Norway
Carpet Bowls International - England v New Zealand v Norway
This year's Festival at Potters saw the first ever Carpet Bowls International, a tri-nations event be-
tween the hosts and teams from New Zealand and Norway. The event took place during the Tuesday
and Wednesday evenings of the Festival
and with these games not finishing until
gone 10.30 pm, that meant it was a very
long couple of days bowling for those in-
volved.
Each country provided 2 blocks and
each block would play against each of their
opponent team's blocks, so there would be
2 games each evening. While Norway were
always bound to be the underdogs, New
Zealand put up a formidable team whose 8
players had won a total of 38 national titles
between them and were always going to be
serious contenders.
With only one game lost over the two
nights the win went to New Zealand who fin-
ished up on 14 points, 4 ahead of England,
while understandably Norway struggled
Sheree Holmes, Paul Wright, Teri Anderson, against this level of opposition.
Sheree Holmes, Paul Wright, Teri Anderson,
Suzanne Mackie, Gary Low, Avon Compton, It was a well-deserved win for the
Suzanne Mackie, Gary Low, Avon Compton,
Grant l'Ami & Ashley Diamond
Grant l'Ami & Ashley Diamond
Kiwis who displayed their class throughout
the week and could quite easily have gone home with every trophy on offer. Plans are already under
way for them to return with their full squad in 2022 by which time we hope to have more countries
involved to enable us to expand the event.
This was not the end of the celebrations as the New Zealand Captain Grant l’Ami won the Fes-
tival of Bowls Singles Cup in an all New Zealand final against Paul Wright in a close match. This
added to his already impressive record both domestically and internationally.
The two-day event at Potters Resort at Hopton-on-Sea in Norfolk saw each country represented
by two rinks of four players. New Zealand was represented by Grant l’Ami (North Taranaki), Avon
Compton (North Wellington), Gary Low (Southland), Teri Anderson (Waikato), Ashley Diamond
(Upper Hutt Valley), Paul Wright (Auckland), Sheree Holmes (Upper Hutt Valley) and Suzanne Mackie
(Southland). New Zealand won the ECBA World Cup with 14 points followed by England 10 pts and
Norway 0, who are in their very early days of development.
All of the New Zealand players and their supporters also competed in the annual Festival of
Bowls with l’Ami firstly winning the singles and then combining with Suzanne Mackie to finish third
in the pairs losing to a Suffolk combination in the semi-finals 4-10.
And then to add to New Zealand’s successful experiment Ashley Diamond (Upper Hutt Valley),
Paul Wright (Auckland), Sheree Holmes (Upper Hutt Valley) and Suzanne Mackie (Southland) fin-
ished runner-up in the fours to a strong Suffolk combination and l’Ami’s team of Compton, Gary Low
and Teri Anderson finished third in the Fours as well.
This was an extremely successful venture by NZ Indoor Bowls to extend the International Cal-
endar beyond the biennial matches against Australia and to give New Zealand’s outstanding athletes
further goals to aim for. This was an extremely successful venture by NZ Indoor Bowls to extend the
International Calendar beyond the biennial matches against Australia and to give New Zealand’s
outstanding athletes further goals to aim for.