Canty success in singles bowls

Press, 29 December 1988, Page 6

Canty success in singles bowls

Special correspondent Auckland A touch of deja vu was in the air yesterday when Sydenham’s Gap; Lawson successfully qualified in the New Zealand singles bowls championship at Auckland. Lawson, aged 23, one of New Zealand’s most promising players, dropped his third match, 21-20, to Campbell McFarlane (Poverty Bay) before winning his crucial fourth game in a close encounter. It was a similar situation at the national singles in Dunedin last year, when Lawson lost his third game, 21-20, and went on to reach the semi-finals before losing to the eventual winner, Kevin Darling. “It might be a good omen,” said Lawson, whose father, Stan, won the singles in Dunedin in 1968. "I played well in the morning and then the wind came up and it was so different in the afternoon. I knew I was in a bit of trouble.” The talented Lawson, who has represented Junior Canterbury in rugby and tennis as well as bowls, breezed through his first two games, beating Hany Jameson (New

Lynn), 21-3, and Noel Thurston (Ruawai), 21-5. But then Lawson came up against two dogged Gisborne players. He led 20-17 against McFarlane, but on the final end McFarlane deftly flicked the kitty to the side of the rink. Lawson twice drew through the head and McFarlane picked up a four to win an exciting match. In the fourth game against Bob Kennedy, also from Poverty Bay, Lawson was down

6-0 but then pulled back to lead 18-9. However, in a fluctuating match Kennedy came back to trail 18-17 before a relieved Lawson got. a two and one to win 21-17 and qualify. Lawson, who is still a junior, has set his sights high in the Auckland nationals. He was teamed with the South Island representative. Bill Kane (Invercargill), in the pairs, and the two of them are playing with two more well-performed Christchurch bowlers, Ken Watson and Andrew Curtain, in the fours. The defending pairs champion, Brian McGowan (Papanui), began his singles campaign well, winning his first three matches against John James (Ponsonby), 21-6, Graham Arnold (Blockhouse Bay), 21-13, and Gary Kingston (Rocky Nock), 21-10. He was joined at the New Lynn green by two leading Blenheim players, John Mears, a former New Zealand representative, and Eric Doggett, who both had three wins. Another Blenheim and Marlborough representative, Bob Dowling, a clubmate of

Mears and Doggett, had a very interesting day on the same green. Dowling won his first game, 21-20, then his second, 21-1, but lost his third, 21-20, to the flamboyant Nino Vlahovic. Dowling then qualified by beating Gary Somers (Henderson), 21-20. Linwood’s Ken Watson, one of New Zealand’s top bowlers with a national fours title and runner-up citation, had one

hiccup, losing his second game to Morry Scott-Morri-son (New Lynn), 21-14, before qualifying with three wins. Andrew Curtain, Watson’s team-mate in the fours, which begin on January 5, had an easier passage with four wins. But the long-time Canterbury provincial representative", Neville Poole (Sumner), blotted a Christchurch cleansweep when he dropped two matches and failed to qualify, losing 21-18, to Stewart Rennie (Mangere) and Doug Bartlett (Papatoetoe), 21-17. The Cromwell-bred Jim Scott, back in the South Island after 10 years in Wellington, had to work hard to keep his singles challenge alive. Scott, who won the national title in Christchurch in 1982, is now playing out of Meadowbank in Oamaru. Yesterday he lost his first game, 21-16, to Bob Bilkey (Rawhiti), won his next two easily but then used the numbers games well — Scott is a bank manager — to win the vital fourth game over John Simons (Pakuranga), 21-20. It was a day for the BNZ because Simons works for the rival National Bank.