Bowls: Semifinalists take it down to the wire

Comebacks were the order of the day as Canterbury's Gary Lawson and the Australian-based New Zealander Richard Girvan yesterday skipped their composite fours at Henderson to today's national final.

Lawson, fellow Cantabrians Doug Wilson and Glen McDonald, and Wellington lead Adam Newman had a 23-14 win in the semifinals over the Onehunga four of Peter Thorne.

But for the first half of the match it was much closer.

Indeed, after eight ends Thorne, Barry Greer, Kevin Hickland and teenage lead Jason Lindsay led 10-2.

About this stage, though, the Onehunga line-up unravelled spectacularly in the intense heat and Lawson's men rattled off three consecutive fives to win comfortably.

In the quarter-final Lawson trailed the composite four skipped by another Cantabrian, Kelvin Scott, for most of the match but, helped by three on the 20th end, recovered to win 20-19.

Girvan, veteran Danny O'Connor, with whom Girvan played in Auckland at the Okahu Bay club, Australian Wayne Turley and lead Steve Beel, from Dunedin's North East Valley, also had to make a comeback in their semifinal against the Tauranga South four of Graham Skellern.

Skellern led 10-1 after six ends, but the crucial turning point in the match came on the seventh end when, with a run shot, Girvan took the kitty back for six shots.

"It was an absolutely screamer of a shot," said O'Connor, who if he wins today will gain his ninth national title, just one behind his old mentor, Nick Unkovich.

Girvan gradually gained an edge over Skellern, but on the second to last end Skellern also played a marvellous run shot to match Girvan's earlier effort of six shots. That gave Skellern, at 25-22 down, a slight hope, but O'Connor played a fine shot on the last end to ensure a 27-22 win.

Girvan has been based at the Taren Point club in New South Wales, but returned to make the nationals finals of the fours last year. He was also in the runner-up four two years ago.

At 31 he must be coming close to national team calculations and he confirmed yesterday he would welcome selection.

"But I guess there are still plenty of good bowlers left back here to pick from."

Like O'Connor, Lawson, who has already established himself among New Zealand's greatest fours skips, will be seeking a ninth national title and in line for the gold star now held only by Unkovich. He won last year's final with this lineup, apart from Wilson coming in this season for an unavailable Andy Curtain.

But he was taking nothing for granted for today.

"It's a 50-50 final," he said. "It'll be the third time in a final for Girvan, Turley is one of the best bowlers in Australia.

"Danny O'Connor is shooting for a ninth title and one of us is going to get closer to Unky's record. Steve Beel's been a Dunedin rep for 10 years. They're a good team and I'm not surprised they've made the final."

In the quarter-finals Skellern came from a 11-3 deficit to beat another Tauranga South four skipped by Peter Clark; Girvan over-ran Dave McMurchy's Glen Eden four 26-14; and Thorne's Onehunga had a narrow 17-16 win over Ron Nisbet's Pakuranga four.

Steve Posa, for his win in the pairs and a place in the singles semifinals, will win the prize as the tournament's most consistent men's bowler.