Bowls cheque to McDonald

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 40

Bowls cheque to McDonald

Bill McDonald (Spreydon) had his biggest payday in a bowls career which started some 15 years ago when he won the final of the Christchurch tournament in the Countrywide professional series on the Edgeware green yesterday. McDonald, aged 53, earned $6OO for his victory and the beaten finalist, Robin Howman (Burnside) collected $4OO. Wally Wilkinson (Beckenham) and Travis Coup (Kaiapoi) shared third and this was worth $lOO each to them.

The final was a disappointing game. Howman slipped well below the level of his earlier games and although McDonald, too,

was a little tentative in the early stages he was in fine touch once he found his rhythm, and towards the finish he drew some superb shots.

McDonald led 10-3 after six ends, 20-5 after twelve and the game was as good as his when he drew two lovely shots on the eighteenth end to extend his advantage to 26-10. Howman carried the game to 24 ends, but he was only prolonging the inevitable.

It was a very different Howman in the morning when he drew with great precision to beat Wilkinson, 31-22, and McDonald possibly also played a better all-round game in the morning than he did in the final

to eliminate Travis Coup (Kaiapoi), 31-26. Howman was 15-6 up on Wilkinson at one stage and although Wilkinson narrowed the gap to just two points, 16-14, Howman lifted his play, especially in drawing great shots with his last bowl, to win handsomely. Coup was struggling all the way against McDonald, but he came back after a bad start and it was only towards the finish that McDonald was able to relax a little. The last week has been a big one for McDonald, and it may not be over yet. Last Sundgt he was in the Spreydon /jam that won the centre champion-of-cham-

pions triples, and now he has won an important singles. He will be playing singles again this week-end when he represents Spreydon in these champion-of-champions. ’ Earlier this season McDonald reached the final of the open singles, where he was well beaten by Ken Watson (Linwood). Yesterday’s win was compensation in more ways than one for his loss on that occasion. If the main final proved a little one-sided, spectators were treated to an excellent game in the plate final. This was between the former playing partners, Stan Lawson (Sydenham) and Ifernie Johns (Christchurch). There were some wonderful shots

played before Lawson sneaked home, 21-20. And by one shot, Lawson earned $2OO and Johns $lOO. Results.—

Semi-finals: R. Howman (Burnside) 31, W. Wilkinson (Beckenham) 22; W. McDonald (Spreydon) 31, T. Coup (Kaiapoi) 26.

Final: McDonald 31, Howman 13.

The plate results were.—

Quarter-finals: S. Lawson (Sydenham) 21, L. Prouting (Kirwee) 13; N. Poole (Sumner) 21, G. Cameron (Darfield) 4; J. Dale (Papanui) 21, W. Fiecken (Beckenham) 13; B. JOhns (Christchurch) 21, O. Tomlinson (Papanui) 9. Semi-finals: Lawson 21, Poole 16; Johns 21, Dale 20. Final: Lawson 21, Johns 20.