Bowls: Heartbreak continues for Brassey

Losing singles finalist Rowan Brassey's heartbreak at the national bowls championship intensified yesterday in post section play of the fours - courtesy of former team-mates Barry Greer and Peter Thorne.

In 1990 Greer and Thorne were part of the Okahu Bay four which Brassey skipped to the national title in Christchurch. And Thorne played with Brassey in the 1995 nationals at Palmerston.

But at Hillsboro yesterday Thorne and Greer, as part of an Onehunga club four which also included Bowls Auckland chairman Kevin Hickland and teenager Jason Lindsay, ended Brassey's hopes of winning yet another fours title.

Onehunga and Brassey's Avondale lineup of Ross Haresnape and the Jamie and Neville Hill father and son pair finished the regulation 21 ends tied at 17-all and on the extra end Hickland's shot proved the decider.

Upsets were frequent yesterday as the men's field was whittled down to 23 combinations, nine in the final 16, and 13 in the women's, three of whom are in the final eight.

The anticipated match of the day, between the composite four skipped by Canterbury star Gary Lawson and another powerful lineup led by Rob Ashton including new singles champion Dwayne Cameron, did not eventuate.

In the first round of post section at Glen Eden, Ashton lost to a Papakura four of Fraser Maguire, Geoff Morris, Glenn Newton and Low Rajek.

Papakura won 22-19, with Maguire producing a virtuoso display of skipping which left Ashton and his three, including experienced North Harbour representative Brent Turner, the national champion of champions titleholder in 2000, in awe.

"The rest of the team played okay," Ashton said. "But it was the skip. He played some fantastic bowls."

The defeat meant Turner has yet to fulfil an ambition of playing against the celebrated Lawson, whose four of Doug Wilson, Glen McDonald and his Wellington lead, Adam Newman, with the exception of Wilson, won last year's title.

The run of Maguire came to an abrupt end against this combination with a 25-12 defeat.

Another former champion skip, Petar Sain, also went out on an extra end to an old team-mate, Nick Krajancic.

The nine skips already in the last 16 include Thorne, evergreen Ivan Kostanich and Lawson.

Those in the last 32 include former fours champions Ivan Marsic, Ivan Zonich and Nick Grgicevich, Kelvin Scott and from the Tauranga South club, Graham Skellern and Peter Clark, who was the pairs champion skip in 1987.

In the women's fours championship singles champion Sharon Sims is one of the skips into the last eight but some excellent combinations remain among the last 16.

These include Wendy Jensen (Pukekohe), Carol Griffiths (Hillsboro), Judy Carson (Kensington), Marion Skinner (Rawhiti) and a composite skipped by Southlander Michelle Preston.

Playing at three in Preston's four is Jan Malcolm, a sixth year bowler but with an extensive sporting background as a crack golfer.

She was a New Zealand junior representative in 1972 and into the 1980s played 16 seasons in Waikato representative teams, and won the old Russell Grace tournament.

"I'd gone as far as I could in golf and then I got hooked on bowls," she said yesterday.

Which is the better game?

"That's hard to answer because they're both beautiful and I love them both."

The main casualty in the women's post section yesterday was the 1996 winning skip from Putaruru, Val Mathews, beaten first up by Sandra Prichard of Wainuiomata.