KEY POINTS:
Veteran Mairangi bowler Rex Redfern, 73, yesterday celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary in a most unusual - and reluctant - way by knocking out one of the favoured fours combinations at the National Open Bowls Championships at Pakuranga.
Redfern, who had two 78-year-olds, Jim Harris and Ken Crawford,
playing second and third for him in his mid-week team of Mairangi club bowlers, beat world champion Richard Girvan, two of New Zealand's most celebrated international stars in Ali Forsyth and Danny O'Connor and a very capable Auckland rep of past seasons, Ian Neary.
The 13-12 nail-biter was the ultimate boilover in the Hyundai championship which has been the setting of countless upsets in its long history.
No other sport gives ordinary club trundlers the chance to topple national heroes.
Redfern and his team didn't even want to play but they were forced to by the circumstances of Girvan needing one more win to qualify for post section play.
"I desperately didn't want to play," Redfern said, scrambling his bowls together to race home. My wife, Margaret, and the rest of the family are sitting at home waiting for me."
It was a game in which everything went right for Redfern and everything went wrong for Girvan and his team. First, the reduced match was transferred to an artificial surface because of the wet conditions, which is a bit like asking a test cricketer to play on a concrete and matting strip, and often wayward Mairangi bowls kept blocking shots, as much by good luck as good management.
"He [Girvan] was the one who was under pressure because he needed the game to qualify. We just played our normal game," Redfern said.
"We were a bit lucky - a few things just happened for us."
Girvan needed two shots on the last end, with O'Connor having drawn one for him.
But, with his last bowl, Redfern delivered a shot four metres short of the head and right in Girvan's line, nullifying any chance Girvan had to force an extra end.
The same scenario faced another former world champion, Sharon Sims (Northern), as she needed her last match against Colleen MacNay, to qualify for post section play.
But Sims, with her title winning pairs partner, Mary Campbell, Desire Lambert and Feona Sayles, in her side, cruised past the last obstacle 23-6 to survive for another day.
Of the big names to proceed to the knockout section of the fours, reigning champion Ryan Bester has qualified, along with his Cabramatta club-mate Peter Belliss, double world champion Gary Lawson (Eastbourne) and Black Jack Shannon McIlroy (Stoke).
With Sims, are other favoured women's combinations in title-holder Jo Babich (Carlton-Cornwall), Jan Khan of Beckenham and exciting pairs runner-up, Dale Lang of Tawa.