First bowls title

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 3

First bowls title

The 61-year-old Redcliffs Bowling Club won its first Christchurch centre title when Eric Tomlinson skipped his team of Ron Main, John Pickering and Lee Schafer to victory in the champion-of-champions fours at New Brighton yesterday. In a final which produced bowls of an exceptionally high standard, possibly the highest seen in a centre final for many years, Tomlinson beat Ken Watson’s Linwood four of Sonny Calder, Peter Morel and Ray Dyer, 20-14. Watson, who had won this event twice in the three previous years in teams skipped by Morgan Moffat, went close to completing a notable family double for the week. A few days earlier his wife, Marie, had won the women’s champion-of-champions pairs. He may also have liked the title to celebrate his selection in the South Island team.

Nevertheless, Watson had every reason to feel satisfied with his efforts, and those of his team. He played some great bowls throughout the two days, never more so than in the semifinals where he just about won the game singlehanded, and although he had plenty of experience with Calder at lead, both Morel and Dyer are still juniors. But they hardly played like novices in the final. Right from the start the

standard was high, with the Redcliffs four being more solid and pushing clear to 71 after four ends and 12-7 after ten.

The quality of the play rose even higher on the second half of the board and some of the heads were unbelievably tight. Not even the persistent roar of a helicopter circling nearby could shake the players’ concentration.

Watson fought back to be level at 13-13 after 14 ends, but the star of the last seven ends was Tomlinson. In three heads out of four he drew touchers with only centimetres to work in and there was one truly remarkable head which he won with a trail for two after the shot had changed hands five times. On the final end Watson had a chance of the four he needed for an extra end until once again Tomlinson produced the perfect bowl, and another just as good with his last bowl put Watson in the position of having to play a “miracle” shot with is last bowl to salvage the game. But in keeping with the whole tenor of the play it was not so surprising that Watson very nearly succeeded with his drive to remove two bowls from the head by slicing off a wing bowl.

Calder outled, although not by much, Main at lead, but then Tomlinson had

every reason to be thankful for the very steady play of his No. 2, Pickering. Schafer was given to brilliance more than once and while Watson played extremely well Tomlinson still had his measure on the vital shots near the finish. A superb drive by Watson on the second-to-last end, which took him from two or three down to two up, got the Linwood four through the semi-finals, and Redcliffs was up to scoring a four on the last end to win its semi-final against Ken Piner (Rangiora). Results from the third round:— Third round K. Watson (Linwood) 20, D. O’Neill (Morrison Avenue) 17; W. Newburgh (Elmwood) 29, K. Joseph (Burnham Camp) 6; K. Mcßeath (Opawa) 29, B. Chapman (Beckenham) 11; I. Hanson (Barrington) 20, T. Wood (Mount Pleasant) 19; K. Piner (Rangiora) 21, C. Manson (Shirley) 9; R. Jeal (Oxford) 25, J. Gillespie (Halswell) 11; E. Tomlinson (Redcliffs) 32, G. Johnston (Woolston W.M.C.) 16; A. Kennish (Dallington) 24, R. Neilson (Ashburton M.S.A.) 17. Fourth round Watson 27, Newburgh 10; Hanson 15, Mcßeath 14; Tomlinson 24, Kennish 8; Piner 21, Jeal 16. Semi-finals Watson 21, Hanson 14; Tomlinson 16, Piner 15. Final Tomlinson 20, Watson 14.