DAY OF RECKONING IN BOWLS Antipodeans emerge to fight for fours title

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33447, 31 January 1974, Page 8

DAY OF RECKONING IN BOWLS Antipodeans emerge to fight for fours title

I By

K. J. McMENAMIN)

The New Zealand bowlers will go into the final round this morning still with bright prospects of winning a medal in all three sections.

The four of Kerry Clark, Dave Baldwin, Jack Somerville, and Gordon Jolly has a great chance of the gold, but in the singles and the pairs the best that can be hoped for are bronzes.

After the twelfth round last evening, New Zealand and Australia were co-leaders in the fours and far enough ahead to be certain of the first two placings.

Both will play opponents they should beat this morning—New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia, Papua New Guinea—and if they both win, aggregate shots for and against will determine who takes the gold.

New Zealand holds an advantage here—plus 113 shots to Australia’s plus 105. This means that Australia, if it is to win the gold, must beat Papua New Guinea by at least eight points more than New Zealand beats Hong Kong. It is an intriguing situation, but no less so than in the singles and pairs: The defending singles champion, David Bryant (England) would have been just about certain of the gold if he had beaten Clive White (Australia) yesterday morning, but White came from behind to win in a tense finish and the key to the singles now lies in the match this morning between Bryant and New Zealand’s Percy Jones. Bryant and White share the lead and if Bryant beats Jones, his big advantage on aggregate shots—plus 107 to

plus 76—would give him the gold medal if White also wins his last game, which he should do. However, if Jones beats Bryant and White wins it will be White who will take the gold, Bryant the silver and Jones the bronze. Even if he loses, Jones could still win the bronze. He can be joined in third place by William Wood (Scotland) and Maldwyn Evans (Wales), but he is well ahead of Evans in points for and five up on Wood.

U.K. in pairs In the pairs Scotland and England are assured of the first two placings and Scotland should have few problems sealing the gold with a win over Hong Kong this morning. England’s final opponent is New Zealand, which was third last night and should hold this position even if it loses this morning. Wales and Fiji could draw level on match points, but they would need to score heavily to lead New Zealand on shots. The New Zealand four had a bye through the morning round yesterday and in the afternoon it played exceptionally well in the early stages to get command over Zambia.

All members of the team played well, with Somerville’s driving potent. Zambia improved towards the finish, but a four on the twentieth end put New Zealand beyond reach.

On an adjoining rink, Australia played Northern Ireland and this very nearly resulted in an upset. The lowly - ranked Northern Ireland four was in front, and comfortably so for a long time, until the final end, where Australia got a three to win 23-20. With his last bowl, the Northern Ireland skip, James Dennison, was very unlucky not to trail the kitty.

Tense singles The best games yesterday in the singles were in the morning, between Jones and Wood and Bryant and White. Wood had the edge on Jones at first, but Jones fought back to win eight out of nine ends and looked set for victory when he led 19-15.

However, with some fine bowling, Wood won the next five ends to take the game 21-19. On the second-to-last head Jones just missed running off Wood’s shot bowl and bringing into play his two seconds, which would have given him the game. This defeat virtually put paid to Jones’s chances of finishing any higher than third. The White-Bryant game fully lived up to expectations. Bryant had victory—and his third singles gold medal—in his grasp when he led 17-12, but he could not compete with the tremendous drawing of White over the final stages and went down 19-21. In the afternoon, Bryant, White and Jones all had impressive victories*. Bryant was in masterly form against Roy Fulton (Northern Ireland) and Jones was much

too steady for his major rival for the bronze medal, Evans.

Adventure tells The major attraction yesterday was the pairs match between Bom McDonald and Phil Skoglund (New Zealand) and the unbeaten Scottish combination of John Christie and Alex Mclntosh.

It lived up to its promise. The scoring was close all the way, with New Zealand finding, and not for the first time during this tournament, just how hard it is to hold shots against players who are not afraid to play up to the head.

Playing the last end Scotland was ahead 17-14 and McDonald held two shots when he came to play his last bowl. He went for the win with an up-shot to take out a bowl and although on target, had the misfortune to remove one of his own counters as well. However, McDonald held his three shots when Mclntosh missed with a drive and this was one of the very few heads of the game on which Mclntosh did not put his bowls to good use. In the afternoon, Scotland was untroubled to beat Canada and will be a deserving winner if it does get the pairs gold today. New Zealand had to battle hard before getting clear of Wales on the last few ends and the other top team, England, was fully extended to hold off Northern Ireland.