EARLY SEASON START FOR NZ PROFESSIONAL BOWLS ASSOCIATION
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RESURRECTION OF PBA TRANS TASMAN CHALLENGE
After a three year absence due to the Pandemic, the annual PBA Challenge between the Australian and New Zealand Professional Bowls Association branches will resume on Monday at the Mandurah Club in Perth. This will be a catch-up ‘2022’ Challenge with a return leg 2023 event happening in September in New Zealand.
The New Zealand PBA has a strong line-up with the recent World Bowls World Indoor Singles runner-up Andrew Kelly travelling direct from Warilla in New South Wales keeping his spot as the best performed kiwi in the last edition in 2019. Kelly is joined by the best ranked NZ players from 2021 still currently in the PBA Ray Martin, Gavin Scrivener, Sheldon Bagrie-Howley and Craig Merrilees.
This will be Kelly’s third appearance with an impressive 9 win 3 loss record finishing 3rd in 2017 and 2nd in 2019. Merrilees will be playing in his seventh consecutive Challenge with a 15 win 18 loss record finishing 3rd in 2015, 2nd in 2018 and 5th in 2019. Martin, Scrivener and Bagrie-Howley are all making their debuts. They are not without PBA international experience however with Bagrie-Howley playing the 2016 Scottish Singles and Martin the 2019 World Indoor Singles in the UK. Scrivener has made the NZ national play-offs in 5 events over the last 3 years.
The Australian team will all also be making their PBA Challenge debuts featuring Jack East, Lisa Featherby, Paul Davies, Conner Biddle and Blake Butler. East is 21 years old and made his World Bowls Tour debut in Scotland last year, while Featherby featured in this year’s Ladies Invitation Singles and Mixed Pairs at Potter’s Leisure Resort in England.
Play gets underway at 5pm NZST on Monday with all kiwis playing all aussies over two days culminating in the best three of each team playing off against their counterpart to decide which Association wins the Challenge.
Information including an application form, entry forms, dates and venues for the NZ PBA can be found on the worldbowlstour dot org site under PBA – New Zealand.
ISAACSON RETURNS TO PBA FINALS WEEKEND 8th May 2023
Hawkes Bay’s Mike Isaacson will play in the New Zealand Professional Bowls Association Finals Weekend for the third time in five years after winning the opening qualifier of the 2023 season at the Bowls Heretaunga venue in Hastings on Sunday. Isaacson won the Scottish Singles qualifier beating Bay of Plenty’s David Jones in the final 10-6, 8-6 to earn a spot in the Invercargill national playoffs in September.
The local was in impressive form not dropping a set during the day, compared to a harder run to the final for Jones having to go to tiebreaks in all of his wins including overcoming last year’s form player Natarsha Grimshaw and former number one Murray Glassey.
On Saturday, Glassey beat former coordinator Ian Mason in the final of a Ranking Singles tournament, while on Friday evening Peter Jones beat Grimshaw and Mark Kilmister in the final of the Shanghai Singles Qualifier earning Jones a place at Finals Weekend in Invercargill.
The next action is a catch-up 2022 Trans-Tasman Challenge clash between the Australian and New Zealand PBAs at the Mandurah Club in Perth next Monday 15th and 16th May featuring a strong team of Andrew Kelly, Ray Martin, Gavin Scrivener, Sheldon Bagrie-Howley and Craig Merrilees.
Information including an application form, entry forms, dates and venues can be found on the worldbowlstour dot org site under PBA – New Zealand.
Results from the weekend are as follows: |
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Final: Peter Jones (Hawkes Bay) 31 bt Natarsha Grimshaw (Hawkes Bay) 11 and Mark Kilmister (Hawkes Bay) 9. Ranking Singles: 1st round: Dave Porteous bt Rozanna Muriwai 4-8, 7-5, 2-1; Natarsha Grimshaw bt Scotty McGavin 9-4, 9-0; Paul Sorensen bt Jason Tiddy 8-8, 11-2; Mike Le Geyt bt Gary Muriwai 7-6, 3-10, 2-1. Scottish Singles Qualifier: 1st round: Natarsha Grimshaw bt John Kearns 12-10, 8-4; Scotty McGavin bt Brian Looker 8-7, 10-7; Steve Love bt Iraia Pene 11-1, 13-5; Rozanna Muriwai bt Merv Brown 9-4, 6-7, 2-1; Peter Jones bt Gary Muriwai 12-3, 3-12, 2-1; Murray Glassey bt Ian Mason 7-4, 6-7, 2-1. |
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NZ PBA UNDERWAY TONIGHT IN HASTINGS 5th May 2023
The New Zealand Professional Bowls Association starts early this season with the Bowls Heretaunga venue in Hastings getting underway at 5.30pm tonight with a Shanghai Singles qualifier, followed by a Ranking singles tournament and a Scottish Singles qualifier this weekend. Winners of the Shanghai and Scottish Singles qualifiers will play at the NZ PBA Finals Weekend in Invercargill on September 15-17. The New Zealand winner of the Scottish Singles finals will represent at the Scottish International Open recently confirmed to be hosted by the West Lothian club near Edinburgh on November 7-9.
The early feature match on Sunday pits former NZ number one, Murray Glassey against former Hastings coordinator Ian Mason. This will be their eighth meeting with Glassey holding a 5-2 career advantage.
Information including an application form, entry forms, dates and venues can be found on the worldbowlstour dot org site under PBA – New Zealand.
Draws for the weekend are as follows: |
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Shanghai Singles Qualifier 5.30pm on Fri 5th May. (2022 rank) player v player [PBA career singles head-to-head record] Ranking Singles on Sat 6th May: 1st round: (38)Rozanna Muriwai v (143)Dave Porteous; (114)Scotty McGavin v (33)Natarsha Grimshaw [2-1 Grimshaw]; (93)Paul Sorensen v (debut)Jason Tiddy; (83)Gary Muriwai v (-)Mike Le Geyt. Scottish Singles Qualifier on Sun 7th May: 1st round: (debut)Tahi Mahuta v (33)Natarsha Grimshaw; (95)Brian Looker v (114)Scotty McGavin [1-0 Looker]; (136)Steve Love v (debut)Iraia Pene; (191)Merv Brown v (38)Rozanna Muriwai; (75)Peter Jones v (83)Gary Muriwai; (118)Ian Mason v (61)Murray Glassey [5-2 Glassey]. 2nd round: (242)Fletch Christian v (-)Gavin Keighley; (35)Mike Isaacson v (220)Glen Curtis [1-0 Isaacson]; (93)Paul Sorensen v (266)Mark Kilmister; (-)Mike Le Geyt v (143)Dave Porteous; (90)David Jones v (debut)Jason Tiddy. |
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EARLY SEASON START FOR NZ PROFESSIONAL BOWLS ASSOCIATION 26th April 2023
The New Zealand Professional Bowls Association starts early this season with the Bowls Heretaunga venue in Hastings getting underway on the evening of Friday 5th May with a Shanghai Singles qualifier, a Ranking singles tournament and a Scottish Singles qualifier that weekend. Entries close with coordinator Dave Porteous this Friday. The PBA Subscription remains unchanged at $175 from previous years.
Soon after this a catch-up 2022 New Zealand and Australian PBA Challenge will take place at the Mandurah Club in Perth on May 15th and 16th featuring a strong kiwi team of Andrew Kelly, Ray Martin, Gavin Scrivener, Sheldon Bagrie-Howley and Craig Merrilees to resume battle after a three year break for the Pandemic. A return 2023 event will be held in New Zealand in September.
Auckland will see a new venue used this season at Royal Oak which is quickly gaining a reputation for good organisation and a great surface. The rest of the venues are unchanged including Paritutu in New Plymouth, Naenae in Wellington, the Dunedin Bowls Stadium, and Waverley in Invercargill. Waverley will host Finals Weekend in September for the first time in 10 years.
Information including an application form and entry forms can be found on the worldbowlstour dot org site under PBA – New Zealand. Beware the New Plymouth entry form should read 19 and 20 August for their last weekend.
The full programme is as follows: |
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2023 NZ PBA Dates
* Players can only play a maximum of 2 Ranking Singles, and 1 attempt at each qualifying event in a season
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