Bowls final won by Canterbury

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33966, 6 October 1975, Page 16

Bowls final won by Canterbury

A magnificent recovery by the Canterbury skip, Darcy Hatsell, to beat the present New Zealand singles champion, Brian Stewart (Auckland), carried his team through to a narrow victory in the final of the national Rothmans indoor bowls tournament at Hamilton yesterday.

Canterbury and Auckland won two matches each, but Canterbury regained the title on a count-back. Canterbury won 37 ends to 35 by Auckland, and had an over-all points advantage of 79-72. Hatsell was trailing Stewart—himself a former Canterbury representative — by 19-6, a seemingly hopeless position. But he dominated the later stages of the game and finished with a 23-20 win.

Auckland evened the scores when Dick Fleming beat Trevor Austin, of Canterbury, 23-18, and Fleming went on to beat Hatsell, 19-18, in the second round. But Austin gained the winning points when he thrashed Stewart, 20-10. The victory provided Austin and Hatsell with their second Rothmans titles. Austin’s team included Mrs M. Austin, Mrs N. Burrows and J. A. Burrows: and Hatsell had Mrs V. McGuigan, Mrs M. Hatsell and J. McGuigan with him.

Auckland beat Canterbury, 28j to 194 in the final of the

Welsh Trophy competition at Hamilton on Saturday.

After the completion of the first round, Auckland was ahead by 13-11, although Canterbury made a game bid to retain the trophy by tieing the scores at 16-16 after the pairs events. Canterbury was still only one point behind at the start of the second round fours, but the Auckland skips, lan Smith and Les Dunn, achieved narrow wins over their Canterbury rivals, Alf Williamson and Leon McLennan.

It seemed that the lack of recent hard match practice was reflected in Canterbury’s display, the team having had its last A. S. Paterson Trophy challenge in mid-August. Results (Canterbury names first):

Pairs.—First round: A. E. Williamson 10, L. Dunn 2; R. J. Watkin 5, D. Foster 12: L G McLennan 7, I. Smith 7; K. Becker 6. S. Smith 7. Second round: Williamson 9. Smith 4: Watkin 11, Smith 4; McLennan 7. Dunn 7; Beeker 5 Foster 6 Singles—First round: Williamson 3, Dunn 8; Watkin 6. Foster 8; T. N. Austin 8, A. Wheeler 8; G. W. Thomas 6, B. W’ootten 10; McLennan 10. I. Smith 6; Becker 6, S. Smith 6; G. L Barnes 10, G. Taylor 6; J A Burrows 7. B. Wood 6. Second round: Williamson 5, I. Smith 8; Watkin 6, S Smith 8; Austin 7. Taylor 9; Thomas 11 Wood 7; McLennan 7, Dunn 7; Becker 7. Foster 8; Barnes 6, Wheeler 5; Burrows 9 Wootten 4. Fours—First round: Williamson 8, Dunn 2; McLennan 4. I. Smith 14. Second round: Williamson 6, Smith 10; McLennan 6, Dunn 9.

Over-all: Auckland 128 ends. Canterbury 123; Auckland 200 points, Canterbury 197.