Bowls: Kelly a hero again as heat goes on in one-sided affair

Veteran Mike Kernaghan, of Kaikorai (left), and Tony Grantham (Birken-head) after their fours win yesterday. Photo / ODT

Andrew Kelly has come a long way since reaching his first national fours final with the teenage Kelly gang in 2006.

In those days he was drive-happy and would have a crack at any opponent's bowl still on the green. He still has the powerful drive but does not employ it as much he once did.

Two years ago, at the age of 23, Kelly was the youngest skip to win a New Zealand bowls fours title. He still knows how to select a winning four and where to place his men to bring the best result.

That is why he chose the driving role at third for himself and put veteran Mike Kernaghan (Kaikorai) at skip to draw the pressure shots after he had broken up the head.

Kelly knew he would have bowls on the head because Mike Nagy (Taren Point) and Tony Grantham (Birkenhead), the winner of the pairs title last week, were at the front of his four.

Kelly beat the Dunedin Composite team of Mitchell Will, Keri Rupene, Brendon Hollander and Doug Thomas 19-10 in a one-sided final in Dunedin yesterday. It was the fourth time Kelly had skipped a team in the fours final at the nationals.

His teams have been in the final for the past three years. He won at Auckland in 2012 and this year and was runner-up last year.

"I would have been unhappy if we had lost today after being in the last three finals. Two in the hand is better than two in the bush," he said.

"It was a great feeling to win a national title again. We had a really good team and gelled well."

Each man knew his role.

It was the job of Nagy and Gran-tham to get the early bowls close to the jack and they did this consistently by outplaying their opponents. It was Kelly's job to drive them out of trouble and he did this on the eighth end to start a seven end scoring spree.

Kernaghan displayed the talent that brought him a Commonwealth Games singles bronze medal in 2002 by putting in the covering shots and tidying up any loose ends. He displayed maturity in his decision making and class in his delivery.

Kelly's team did not have any game plan for the final.

"It's hard to make up a game plan outdoors because the conditions are so variable," Kelly said. "We just prepared the same way as earlier games."

The game was even at 5-all after seven of the 18 ends. But Kelly's four then scored 14 points on the next seven ends to lead 19-5 after 14 ends.

Kelly put his stamp on the game by shortening the length on the 11th end.

"They didn't adjust as well as we did," Kelly said.

Grantham drew the shot, Kelly added two shots and Kernaghan added the bonus shot for four points. It was the decisive act of the game.

Thomas' challenge withered after that.

The Kelly team varied the length of the end when they felt Thomas' team had adjusted to a particular length. Otago Daily Times