The Royal Oak team of Danny Delany, Joe Whitelaw and 13-year old David Motu won the Royal Oak Bowls $20,000 Easter Triples Tournament on Sunday in a tight Final against the Manurewa team of David Clark, Shane Drabble and Logan Clark, 11-9.

The win was noticeable for two things: it was the first time a local team had won the tournament in its 10 years of existence and the first time a 13-year-old had been part of the winning team. David’s beautifully drawn bowl on the last end gave his skip Danny Delany the platform to seal the win and confirmed the arrival of one of the future stars of our game. Along with 11-year-old Liam Hill, Royal Oak have two outstanding young bowlers in the club’s ranks. Both players are undoubtedly going to win many, many tournaments in the future.

In the Plate Final, it took an Extra End to find the winner. The Composite Team of Olivia Bloomfield (New Lynn), Catherine Bien (St Heliers) and Paris Baker (New Lynn) beat another Composite Team of Bart Robertson (Helensville), Paul Anderson (Mt Maunganui) and Leanne Poulson (Papakura), 15-13 in a real thriller.

The quality of the tournament was noted by Kevin Hickland who was commentating on the live stream. When you have players like Tony Grantham, Jeremy Brosnan and Taylor Horn in the Plate Semi Final along with a team of defending champions skipped by Aiden Takarua and a team of previous winners skipped by Ashleigh Jeffcoat getting knocked out in the Main Draw Semi Final then you know the tournament has attracted a high-quality field.