Bowls: Victory in tense final clash sends champion to Hong Kong

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.