North Otago Indoor Bowls Club hosted the eastern zone South Island 1-5 bowls tournament at the Oamaru Club on Saturday.
It was for bowlers within their first five years of playing the sport and acted as a qualifying tournament as the winners will go on to play at nationals in August.
The eastern zone covers Canterbury, Ashburton, South Canterbury and North Otago.
There were 20 entries in the singles section and 10 teams competed in the pairs.
The tournament rotates each year and this was the first time in "quite some time’ it had been held in Oamaru, tournament spokesman and club member Mike Howard said.
They also had five North Otago bowlers take part.
"This is probably the first year that we’ve even had anyone eligible to play because we just haven’t had the bowlers. We haven’t had 1-5 year bowlers."
Richard Whitham, Nathan Barnes and Helen Anderson competed in the singles section before Whitham teamed up with Shannon Dunnett and Barnes was joined by Mark Newton for the pairs
While neither duo qualified for the playoff section, Barnes and Whitham did qualify in the singles, with the latter making it all the way to the semifinals.
Gemma Andrew, of Ashburton, had an outstanding tournament, winning both the singles section and the pairs with partner and husband Nic.
Howard wanted to thank efforts of club president Bede Mallon and secretary Louise Daley for organising the event and their club members for volunteering their time to help run it.
"They’re really the ones that jumped it along and got it here."
