The mother and daughter combination of Leigh and Kirsten Griffin easily beat Australians Stewart and Clarke 22-14 in the quarter-finals of the women's pairs at the National Open bowls in Christchurch.
They will play the Canterbury pair of Sandra Keith and Serena Mathews in the semifinals tomorrow morningafter rain stopped play this afternoon. The women's and men's final this will held tomorrow afternoon.
Keith and Mathews qualified for the semifinal with a 21-12 win over Margaret O'Connor and Linley O'Callaghan.
Defending champions Mandy and Angela Boyd defeated Reen Stratford and Linda Ralph 23-14 to set up the mouth-watering semifinal against Jo Edwards and Val Smith. Edwards and Smith squeaked into the semifinal 19-18, being forced to play an extra end by Sarah Scott who managed to pick up a three with her last bowl. The experience of Edwards and Smith showed through on the extra end to take the match by one.
The men's pairs quarter-finals were always going to be close. Ali Forsyth and father Neville beat James Collier and Duncan O'Keefe from Rangiora 18-10 and will play defending champions Rob Ashton and Petar Sain in the semifinals. Ashton and Sain had an excellent 19-18 win against the in-form singles finalist Shannon McIlroy and Gary Lawson.
Andrew Howie and Greg Dale from Australia eliminated Kerry Becks and Darren Redway 22-9 so they will now play the young guns Seamus Curtin and Euan Wong.
They have now proven that being in this elite company is no fluke and some old wise heads are now predicting that they could go all the way after their 23-12 win over Sean Thompson and Les Inch.
