Exciting finish to indoor bowls final

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33254, 18 June 1973, Page 3

Exciting finish to indoor bowls final

(New Zealand Press Association)

WANGANUI.

An Auckland garage owner, A. Rasmussen, added the 1973 fours title to the pairs crown he won two years ago, when the national indoor bowls championships ended on a dramatic note in Wanganui on Saturday night.

Rasmussen and his team-mates—B. Wood, Mrs S. Bishop, and Mrs N. Lehmann—had to sweat their way through almost 15} hours of exhausting competition on the final day before winning the blue riband event of the championships.

After winning their way through five preliminary rounds, Rasmussen had to pull out a sensational shot on the last head of the final against D. Stewart, of Canterbury, runner-up in the singles earlier in the week, to force a replay. And at 12.40 a.m. on Sunday after beginning competition at 9 a.m. the previous day, Rasmussen finally beat his South Island opponent to gain his second national title.

It was a fitting finale to a week of first-class bowling. Magnificent organisation kept a large crowd on tenter- ! hooks. So engrossed were the Spectators that more than 300 stayed to watch the replay. Rasmussen, with his No. 3, Wood, —his partner in his 1971 pairs triumph—giving him good support, raced to a handy 12-6 lead after 10 ends of the final. But the next five ends were a sheer disaster for the Auckland man as he dropped 11 shots to see his six-point lead switched to a five-point deficit, 12-17.

Nevertheless Rasmussen displayed nerves of steel to produce accurate draw bowls and take five on the sixteenth and to draw level at 17-all with two ends to play.

; Stewart and his team of IW. Logan, J. Mayhew, and T. Washington took what appeared to be a winning

two-shot lead going into the final end. The situation indeed looked bright for the Canterbury four as Rasmussen prepared to play his last bowl, two down on the board and one down on the head.

Carefully and outwardly calm, Rasmussen proceeded to produce the perfect draw shot, clipping the kitty through to a second bowl to capture two shots, level the match again—and force a full, 18-end replay. The Auckland quartet began a little slowly in the replay, dropping the first three ends to be three down. But Rasmussen rallied his team by example to forge into a 12-6 lead after 11 ends, including a gigantic six on the seventh end. He maintained control through to the fifteenth, where he led 15-10. However, Stewart made his final, valiant bid on the sixteenth by picking up three to go within two points of the lead, 13-15. Thoughts of another replay loomed for a while until Rasmussen took a matchwinning four on the seventeenth and a single on the last to win comfortably, ; 20-13. CLEAN SWEEP Rasmussen’s victory provided a clean sweep in the; major events for North Island : centres, with the South Island; providing the runner-up on each occasion. The singles was won by G. Dunlop (Bay of Plenty), with Stewart the runner-up; the pairs by G. Groves and J. Pringle, of Auckland, with C. Cleghorn and R. Calder of Southland, the runners-up. I The South Island did; manage one major trophy.: The' Patron’s Cup, awarded: to the association to provide:

the most number of players in the last 32 of each championship was won by South Otago. Results of the fours:— Semi-finals.—D. J. Stewart, W. H. Logan, J. C. Mayhew, T. C. Washington (Canterbury) 12, A. Wilson, Miss E. Cousins, Mrs A. O’Connell, B. Kelson (Taranaki) 4; A. Rasmussen, B. Wood. Mrs G. Bishop, Mrs M. Lehmann (Auckland) 10, G. Benvenuti, D. Canclan, L. Cancian, G. Benvenuti (Hutt Valley) 7.

Final.—Rasmussen 18, Stewart 18. Replay: Rasmussen 20, Stewart 13.