Off to Australia

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 29

Off to Australia

PA Auckland Whakatane bowlers, Don McKillop and Peter Clark (skip) earned themselves a trip to Australia to play in the prestigious Warilia Masters pairs in Wollongong when they won the tenth Manurewa Invitation tournament yesterday.

In a closely fought final, Clark and McKillop beat the Carlton pair of Ross Haresnape and Peter Budd (skip), 22-19, to clinch the MacLeay Duff tournament. Budd and Haresnape as it turned out were a makeshift combination and did well to reach the final.

Budd was originally paired with Mai Brown who was the invitee to the tournament. Brown, however, was rushed to hospital with pneumonia on Friday morning and it took some rapid radio telephone calling to locate Haresnape in his taxi some-

where in Auckland to summon him to the Manurewa greens.

Clark and McKillop, who won the national pairs title in Wellington last year and then went on to be runners-up in the national fours, earned the win with a splendid performance of percentage bowls.

The title was won on two ends, the sixth and the eight where Clark picked up his winning break.

With the score locked at four-all after five ends, Clark produced a winner with his last bowl, removing a Budd obstacle to take a six. On the ninth end Clark produced another gem of a bowl to remove a Haresnape shot bowl to come out of it with a five.

That made the score, 15-5, and it was sufficient a buffer for Clark to coast, allowing Budd to pick up shots here and there without ever letting him right back in the game.