Bowls: Boyd cracks another final

Selina Goddard smiles at Gemma Watts as Taieri's Beth Brown (left) and Judy Robertson (right) ponder their loss. Photo / Otago Daily Times

Mandy Boyd (Burnside) wanted to throw off the bridesmaid tag after finishing runner-up in her past four national bowls finals.

Boyd, 22, won her first national title in the fours at Dunedin in 2011 but had not been able to crack it since. She has been runner-up on four occasions since then. At Auckland two years ago, she was a finalist in the singles, pairs and fours.

In cold conditions in Dunedin yesterday her Composite team of Selina Goddard (Carlton Cornwall), Gemma Watts (United, Nelson) and Amy McIlroy (United) beat the Taieri Plains team of Beth Brown, Jean Young, Judy Robertson and Sue Hodges 20-18 in a tight game.

Boyd has brought a fresh winning style into New Zealand women's bowls.

Her Composite team have brought aggression and flexible tactics into their game.

Boyd, Watts and McIlroy have played together in New Zealand junior teams in transtasman contests and have adopted the aggressive approach of the young Australians.

In the final the team's red shirts were covered up by jackets that were needed in the cold conditions. But they stood out when they won the semifinal at the Westpac Bowls Stadium indoor rink on Wednesday.

"We wanted to break away from the usual white and put our own stamp on style," Boyd said.

One lesson they have adopted from the Australians is to have a conference in the middle of the green after each end.

"We look at all factors of the game and are thinking about the wind, the jack length and about who is playing well and on what hand," Boyd said.

Taieri Plains rocked them from the beginning by scoring fives on the fourth and ninth ends to lead 14-9.

On both ends lead Brown put the early bowls close to the jack and the other players added the extra points. They were all drawn shots.

But they never felt they had the game won at that stage.

"No, not at all," Hodges said. "These girls have played for New Zealand. We had to fight hard to win any end.

"But we had a good shot and gave the young girls a run for their money."

Winning a national title is all about taking the heat. Taieri Plains failed to do this.

"We are very disappointed," Hodges said.

"When the pressure was on we were dropping our bowls short and it cost us the win."

Boyd's team was not concerned about the slow start.

"They got away from us at the beginning," Boyd said. "But we knew we had lots of ends left."

The Boyd team closed the gap by scoring ones on the next five ends to level the score at 14-all after 14 of the 18 ends.

"We just played one point at a time," Boyd said. "It was good fishing."

Boyd looked to have the game safe when she drew the bonus shot and they led 17-15 with just two ends left.

On the penultimate end Hodges had one on the head but that was not enough so she drove the jack into the ditch and collected three shots to lead 18-17.

"I needed to do that to bring us back into the game and give us a chance," Hodges said.

The wind made it difficult to keep tight heads so Boyd's team just concentrated on getting shots around, but not on the jack.

"It was hard to play tight heads in the wind," Boyd said. "As long as we got our bowls around the head there were always shots to play."

Boyd's team had three scoring shots around the head on the last end and it was too difficult for Hodges to drive them out to win the game.