Terry Johnson's love affair with the indoor surface at the impressive Pukekohe Complex continued yesterday when he beat Chris Smith (Bay of Plenty) in a tense clash on Superbowls finals day.
Johnson, from Manawatu, made it back-to-back New Zealand Indoor Singles titles with his hard-fought win in the Dorchester-sponsored championship.
The victory earned Smith a trip to the new-look World Bowls indoor singles in Hong Kong in April - his second such venture to the high class event.
He will be joined in Hong Kong for the April 1-10 championships by North Harbour's Lisa Dickson who had a straight sets win over Leigh Griffin (Wellington) in the women's final.
Johnson, who had a first round bye, beat Cliff Mitchell-Burnard in straight sets in Friday night's second round clash and carried that form into yesterday's semifinal where he cruised home comfortably 9-7, 11-6 over Wellington's Bruce Miller. In the final, Johnson had to come back from a set down to beat Bay of Plenty hopeful Chris Smith.
Smith tipped out local hope Glyn Judson 2-1 in a tiebreaker in their semi-final after he had dropped the second set 7-9.
The final began well for Smith as he edged the defending titleholder 11-7 but Johnson bounced back to take the second 11-6 and went on to win the three-end tiebreaker 2-0.
After being taken to a tiebreaker by Northland's Manu Timoli in the first round, Dickson cruised home without dropping a set yesterday.
In her semifinal she raced through the first set 16-1 over Di Major (Auckland) who had eliminated playing through champion Cathy Fleming (Taranaki) on Friday night.
In the second semifinal, Griffin won the first set over Taranaki's Heather Johns 9-4 but appeared in trouble in the second, needing two shots on the last end to claw back to 8-8 and get through. The final was a more one-sided affair with national squad member Dickson winning in straight sets.
