Moffat directs four to silver

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 18

Moffat directs four to silver

NZPA staff correspondent Emonton

Morgan Moffat, of Christchurch, a new name amongst an established group, was one of the successes of the New Zealand bowling team's medal-win-ning performance at the Commonwealth Games. The team manager (Mr Gordon Jolly) yesterday was full of praise for the Scott-ish-born Moffat. As the No. 3 in the silver medal-winning four, the 35-year-old Moffat, w’ho emigrated to New Zealand two years ago, controlled and directed the heads well. Mr Jolly said: “I’m very enthusiastic about Morgan. He’s been brought up in a hard school and he still plays bowls hard.

“He has a great tactical approach. He makes sure he knows where every bowl is and points out to his skip all the possible shots so no chance is lost,” he said. Whenever his team mem* bers slipped in their bowling, Moffat was always there to urge them on, intently concentrating on the build-up of the heads. He was the driving force behind the New Zealand four’s escort to finish second one point away from top nation of the Games bowls, Hong Kong. The British Colony superbly won the glamour fours and pairs titles on some heavy and trying greens at Edmonton.

New Zealand’s singles entrant, Kerry Clark, finished fourth after the bronze medallist, Russell Jones, beat the champion, David I Bryant, four times winner ofi

this event, 21-19, in the final round. Even so, Bryant already had the gold won before the match. John Snell (Australia) took the silver. The New Zealand pair of Bob McDonald, appearing at his fourth games, and his lead, Ivan Kostanich, finished sixth after having the bye in the final round.

There was a tight competition in the pairs as Ca” nada, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland finished second equal with 18 points, two behind Hong Kong. On the count-back of shots for and against, Scotland’s Alex Mclntosh and William Wood won the silver and the Welshmen Ray Williams and James Morgan the bronze. In the last round of the fours Hong Kong, beat Western Samoa, 23-19, to head off New Zealand by one point. The pair of Cle”menti Delgado and Eric Liddell beat the previous leader, Canada (Graham Jarvis and Ron Jones), 26-16, in the medal-deciding match. The New Zealand four, almost repeating its gold medal performance at Christchurch four years ago, was: Phil Skoglund (skip), Moffat, Dave Baldwin and the consistent lead, John Malcolm. i t

Baldwin stepped up for his second successive Games medal, as did Moffat, but for a different country. He was the lead of the Scottish bronze medal-winning four at Christchurch.

He said yesterday that he emigrated to New Zealand to give his wife and two young children a better standard of living. The 35-year-old gasfitter also wants to keep playing hard at the top international level. New Zealand can be satisfied with its Edmonton per* formance, for it was the most handicapped by the heavy greens and had to spend a lot more time adjusting to the new conditions.

During some matches where form slipped unexpectedly, this showed the team was still being frustrated by the tricky rub of the I greens.