Bowls: O'Connor joins game's legends after winning 10th national title

Danny O'Connor helped Peter Belliss' composite four win the national title. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Danny O'Connor, one of Auckland's most popular bowlers, took his place among the game's legends when as lead for Peter Belliss' composite four he gained his 10th national title at Browns Bay yesterday, joining Nick Unkovich and Gary Lawson as the only men with a bar to their gold stars.

Belliss' four triumphed over the youthful line-up skipped by 24-year-old Wellingtonian Raymond Martin in the fours final 17-13 and, as much as the widespread joy for O'Connor, there was also unqualified admiration for the play of Belliss at skip.

Belliss is now on the national selection panel and several bowls enthusiasts commented at the end of a gripping final that the first man Belliss, who is now 63, should pick was himself.

O'Connor, grateful to have played in such a strong side with Richard Girvan at three and Lance Tasker at two, was among that number. "Peter is the master," he said, adding he would put him on a par with Nick [Unkovich], with whom O'Connor won his first title in 1975. "But I think Peter thinks a bit more about it than Nick."

Belliss now has seven titles and two in the fours, was full of praise for his young opponents, Martin, Monte Pawa and Rory Soden, from Auckland's Glen Eden club, both 21, and lead Richard Corry, a relative veteran at 42.

"They played great bowls and at the end they put us under the pump," he said. "You just have to hold your nerve and in the end that experience came out."

Down 4-16 after 12 ends, but not having played badly and only being denied more shots by Belliss, the Martin four made a superb comeback and with a five, when their excellent draw bowling was finally rewarded, on the penultimate end, made the score 13-16.

But just as it seemed on the 18th and last end a dramatic recovery would bring a miraculous win, Tasker sealed the result by drawing the shot.

Corry, the most experienced of the young four, thus failed to join his uncles, Phil and 1988 world champion Ian Dickison, as national title-holders.

But he was proud of the performance. "To come from so far down and put bowlers of that class and experience under pressure was a mighty effort, especially when we didn't always get the breaks."

Tasker, formerly from Belliss' home-town of Wanganui but now running a Bay of Plenty kiwifruit company, won his first national title leading for Belliss in 1995. He gained another two leading for Sid Giddy in the fours in 2000-01. So he, too, is on the brink of achieving his gold star and he confirmed yesterday that attending the nationals in Christchurch next year, hopefully with the same players, was a priority.

Auckland's Petar Sain won the men's consistency prize and Leigh Griffin the women's. The Carlton-Cornwall four of Gojko Bulog, Mate Tolj, John Crummer and Barry Green were the best men's all-club combination and Hillsboro's Colleen Pert, Helen Murray, Corrine Pritchard and Esther Eu the women's.

Experience prevails for Adams

Bowlers in a more mature age bracket prevailed over youth when Cynthia Adams skipped her Wanganui composite four to an exciting extra-end win over the composite lineup skipped by Petone's Tanya Wheeler in the national women's fours final.

And there could have been no one more appropriate than Adams, 73, in emphasising that in bowls, as in everything else, there is still a place for experience.

When she is not playing bowls, Adams as secretary and her husband as president run the Wanganui branch of Grey Power, of which there are 1800 members in the River City.

With 70 centre titles among them, Adams and her line-up of Dot Belliss, Glenis Pidwell and Pam Burgess snatched a win from Wheeler's four, just when it seemed they were about to lose.

When Webster's three, Dale Rayner, played a great shot on the 16th end to take the score to 16-12 the match appeared over.

But the Wanganui four gained a two on the 17th, another two on the 18th to level at 16-all and so force the extra end. Again Wheeler was holding but with her last bowl Adams drew the winner and though it was some way past the jack Wheeler, with her last, was too heavy.

Belliss is the sister-in-law of Peter, who on the adjacent rink was intent on winning his own title, but seemed just as delighted with the success of Dot as his own.

For Adams and Dot Belliss, who play together regularly, it was their second national title as in 2011 they were in the Wanganui side which won the national club title, but yesterday's was unexpected for they had largely come to Auckland on holiday and had not made any bookings beyond section play.

With their dramatic win the Wanganui women dashed what might have been a historic feat by Wheeler's lead, Ashleigh Jeffcoat, who is only 15 and a pupil at Hamilton Girls' High School. Had she won she would have become the youngest national champion, man or woman.