New Zealand Indoor Bowls Mat Blacks and supporters have made a successful incursion into the world of the English Carpet Bowls Association’s World Cup and annual Festival of Bowls at the Norfolk Resort in the UK.
The Mat Blacks won the inaugural World Cup in the tri-nations international matches against England and Norway.
But that was not the end of the celebrations as the New Zealand Captain Grant l’Ami won the Festival 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.
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 semifinals 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) finished 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 Calendar beyond the biennial matches against Australia and to give New Zealand’s outstanding athletes further goals to aim for.
