Bowls: Boothby enjoys day to savour in singles

By Graham Skellern

CHRISTCHURCH - Hamilton's Kevin Boothby, a top indoor and outdoor bowler, has played lawn bowls for 28 years and participated in 27 national championships.

Yesterday he had one of his better days in the annual tournment by reaching the last 16 of the singles after upsetting New Zealand representative Russell Meyer (Palmerston North) 21-16 in his first game and then overcoming incredible pressure to beat the talented 20-year-old Aucklander Danny Delany 21-20 in the fourth round of post-section play.

Delany, who had beaten the two times national singles champion Gary Lawson 21-14 in the third round, had some huge luck on the penultimate end when his skinny weighted shot flicked off Boothby's short bowl, picked up the jack and trailed it back for three shots and a 20-19 lead.

"You have the winning of the game and all of a sudden you are facing a loss.

Then he nailed it on the next end. But you have to back yourself, don't you?" said a nonplussed Boothby, whose previous best singles performance was reaching the last 11 under the two-life system in Dunedin in 1976.

Boothby, a calm, dogged player, backed himself by wresting Delany's shot bowl and then drew the winning second shot with his last bowl to stay alive to play
Papanui's Craig Lange this morning.

Lange beat Auckland representative and former international Neville Hill 21-11 in the fourth round after leading 12-0 and 18-6.

Boothby was joined in the last 16 by the New Zealand under-25 representative Justin Goodwin (Hillsboro) who beat well-performed Christchurch bowler Terry Rice 21-9 in the fourth round after overcoming two more tough opponents, last year's fours winner Lloyd Gallop (Blenheim) 21-14 and Dunedin representative Mark Cowan 21-16.

Dunedin's Ken Walker, who won in 1987, is the only bowler in the final 16 who has experienced a national singles victory. New Plymouth's Brian Baldwin is the only member of the Commonwealth Games team remaining and there are two dangerous floaters, former internationals Stu Buttar (Christchurch) and Philip Skoglund jun (Palmerston North).

Skoglund beat giantkiller Alan Roffey (Timaru) 21-13 in the fourth round after just edging past another former international, Terry Scott (Dunedin) 21-10. Roffey had taken out the defending champion Kelvin Scott 21-18 in the third round.

Last 16 draw: Michael Rees (Belfast) v Leo Leonard (Kia Toa), Alvin Gardiner (Halswell) v Justin Goodwin (Hillsboro), Rod Leitch (Johnsonville) v Paul Girdler (Leith), Stu Buttar (Burnside) v Geoff Wilson (Kaikorai), Philip Skoglund (Northern) v John Reid (Partitutu), Craig Lange (Papanui) v Kevin Boothby (Hillcrest), Brian Baldwin (Paritutu) v Nigel Wright (Leith), Alistair Keith (Hampstead) v Ken Walker (Fairfield).