PBA BOWLS: Title up for grabs as best meet in Hastings

ANENDRA SINGH
Okay, so the swashbuckling Jamie Hill won't grace the bowling lanes of the Heretaunga Club this weekend due to the Welsh International Open Singles qualifying tournament in Hastings.
Notorious for driving hard, the 27-year-old class act quickened the pulse of bowls fans three years ago when his shot sent the jack flying into the edge of lane four before cracking the window in the club's eight-lane indoor facility.
``I'm a bit of a maniac when I drive. If the jack had hit slightly higher it would have gone straight through the glass,' Hill told SportToday that June.
The organisers may issue a big sigh of relief, considering the insurance premium won't be going up but fans too must not despair. Hill's absence this weekend means someone will climb on to the throne that the Avondale Bowling Club member has been keeping warm as top seed since late 2004.
In fact, it will be the first year since 2002 that Hill has not won the tournament.
Byron Brook, of Heretaunga club, says some of the country's top competitors are among the 57 entries who will be laying out their mats over the two days.
``We've got elite players such as Kevin Robinson [Tokoroa], Palmerston North's Phillip Skoglund and dual international Ian Meyer [New Zealand and England] coming here,' Brook told SportToday.
Ken Walker, of Dunedin, has the inside running when proceedings also take place at the Westpac Bowls Stadium on his home turf. Nevertheless, anything shy of making the quarterfinals will leave the door ajar for four other players - Robinson, Brian Cathro (Waikato), Ray Boffa (Kapiti-Coast) and Neil Fisher (Auckland) - to stick their foot in for that No1 berth.
Top-class draw bowlers Fisher and Robinson won't have it easy, locking horns first up against Skoglund and Hawke's Bay's Terry Johnson, respectively. Boffa and Robinson's paths may cross in the third round while Bay's Porky Faulkner, who made it to last year's semifinals, will have the first dig at Boffa.
Cathro is not playing this weekend but, like Walker, has also qualified for the national pairs playoffs on August 30 in Hamilton.
His playing partner in those pairs, Frances Knight, is in the running for PBA rookie of the year but needs good performances to catch Auckland's Dan Delaney for that trophy. Knight faces the guaranteed year-end top female in another Aucklander Linda Ralph in the first round in Hastings.
Palmy's Desiree Lambert will also be eyeing the trip to the United Kingdom.
It'll be a mate-versus-mate scenario for Heretaunga's Brook and Mike Tamati and Napier's Paul Sorensen and Guy Taylor.
Today's play begins at 8.30am and finishes at 7pm but Brook expected a delayed start tomorrow due to the All Blacks test match, with the finals winding up about mid-afternoon.