Lawson gets so close

Press, 4 January 1988, Page 15

Lawson gets so close

Gary Lawson (Sydenham) came within centimetres of reaching the singles final at the New Zealand bowls championships in Dunedin today. On Friday afternoon, Lawson, who has been bowling competitively for only three years, attempted to draw the shot with his final bowl against Kevin Darling (Caversham) in a tense semifinal. The score was tied at 20-20 and Darling held the shot as Lawsdn stepped up to play his final bowl with the way open to the jack. For a time the bowl looked good but in the last few metres it died giving Darling the win 21-20. Lawson, aged 22, is Darling’s junior in terms of experience, but he matched the top-rated Dunedin player throughout the semi-final. Darling, aged 40, took an early 6-0 lead, and also held leads of 10-3, 13-9 and 17-13 that threatened to put the match out of the Christchurch youngster’s grasp. But Lawson, the son of a former singles winner, Stan Lawson, showed outstanding

maturity and natural ability to come storming back at the seemingly unflappable Darling and by the twenty-first end was still in it, trailing 1618. Then the tide turned, it seemed, against Darling and when he failed with his normally reliable drive, Lawson slipped in to claim a four and hit the lead, 20-19, for the first time in the match. The experience of Darling came to the fore in the tense final few ends, when on the 24th he trailed the jack to the ditch to level at 20-all and then on the final he removed a Lawson shot bowl with a brilliant drive to hold the shot. “I knew when I played the last shot that I should have given it a smack instead,” Lawson said. “But at the time I thought I could draw it.” In earlier matches, Tommy James (Stoke, Nelson), caused the major upset in the final 16 when he beat the defending champion, Ken Walker (Fairfield), 21-17.

James is the other finalist. In his semi-final he beat Wayne Nairn (Papakura).