Garden City takes mixed fours bowls

Press, 1 July 1989, Page 16

Garden City takes mixed fours bowls

Leon McLennan, Trevor Austin, Liz McLennan, and Maria Austin scored Garden City’s third successive win in the New Zealand mixed fours (Canterbury zone) final when they beat the St Paul’s combination of lan Kamo, Kevin Anngow, Patsy Calder and Debbie Kamo 11-10 at Kearneys Road. The game was full of surprises, which kept the spectators totally engrossed. After seven of the 10 ends, superior draw play, particularly from Debbie Kamo at lead and lan Kamo at skip pushed the St Paul’s team out to a seemingly safe 8-1 margin. However, the Garden City quartet got its act together and sat with five shots, Kamo failing badly with his drive. The St Paul’s skip missed another easy drive bn the

ninth end, leaving McLennan with two shots that had looked vulnerable. This tied the game at 8-all. The sensation of the match occurred on the final end, when Kamo, who appeared to have the head well sewn up, became unnecessarily concerned about two of Garden City’s wing bowls. Instead of drawing to cover or playing a restrained running shot, Kamo drove hard and knocked one of his own bowls into the head squeezing the jack over to the opposition’s bowl. He was then left with a tricky last bowl which killed the end.

Liz McLennan killed the extra end playing at second, incurring only a two-point penalty and Garden City ran out the winner by a single point. Kamo recovered from his disappointment with himself and generously wished the winners well for their southern zone final, to be played in Timaru. >

McLennan’s team was runner-up last year to Alf Williamson, who had also won the event in 1987. In the semi-finals, Peter Kerr’s team of Peter van Oossanen, Julie Dailey, and Joanne Hunt, kept in close touch with Kamo’s team for much of their game, but Kerr’s two-month absence from bowls finally showed when he played some loose drives and killed two ends. The other semi-final team of Keith Carter, Bruce McLeod, Vai McLeod, and Daphne Carter played well throughout the tournament, but never really looked like threatening the McLennanAustin combination. ■ Results:

Quarter-final: P. Kerr 9, A. Jeffs 7; L. McLennan 9, J. Rowe 6; K.' Carter 13, D. Clark 6; L Kamo 14, B. Austin 9. •

Semi-finals: Kamo 12, Kerr 8, McLennan 9, Carter 6. Final: McLennan 11, Kamo 10.