Kelly clear winner of Scottish qualifier
IT took a full count on the sixth end of the first set for Andrew Kelly (Canterbury Bowling Club) to hit his straps, but from then on there was no going back, as he ran away with the Dunedin’s qualifying round of the New Zealand Scottish International Singles at the Dunedin Bowls Stadium yesterday.
After surviving a secondround scare when up against Peter Bell (Awamoa) in which he won the sudden death tiebreak 21, Kelly then progressed through pool play unscathed, notching up some impressive victories.
The onesided victories appeared to following him throughout pool play, until he met Peter Everitt (St Clair) in the semifinal. He romped away with a 142 victory in the first set of nine ends, but in the second set he clung on to survive and book a place in the final with an 8all draw, to avoid a sudden death playoff.
On the other side of the draw, Dunedin’s Andy McLean (North East Valley) was also tested. He survived a firstround scare against Kerri Rupene (Taieri), in which only the tiebreak could separate the pair after a 6all draw in the first set and an 8all draw in the second. McLean eventually escaped an early exit with a 20 victory in the tiebreak decider.
He then progressed unscathed through pool play until his quarterfinal game with Karl Mason (Taieri), which proved a topsyturvy affair. McLean won the first set 94 before going down 103 in the second. He progressed with a 21 victory in the tiebreak.
The final between Kelly (20 and McLean (37), backtoback world pairs winning combination in 2015 and 2016, and both New Zealand PBA representatives in transtasman competition, proved a dream for local organisers. The first set had all the drama of a Shakespearean play.
McLean dominated the first five ends, jumping out to a 61 lead, but the Kelly found form with a vengeance.
A Scottish singles champion in 2015 and a world indoor singles champion last year, Kelly bagged all four shots on the sixth end, to close the game up, and took the game to McLean over the remaining three ends for an 87 first set victory.
McLean had no answer for Kelly in the second set. Kelly requiring just seven ends to win 101 and book his ticket to the national final in Hastings at the end of August.
‘‘Hopefully, I can repeat the feat of 2015,’’ Kelly said afterwards with an eye to the world final in Perth, Scotland in November.
‘‘Andy obviously got off to quite a good start, but was a bit unfortunate with a loose end where I got a four, which won the first set and the game. I was quite a bit fortunate to get that break because Andy doesn’t give too many opportunities away.’’
The good natured banter and rivalry between the two continued long after the game, as Kelly accepted his pedi gree from McLean, and shared time in the bar with his rival and international pairs partner afterwards.
The final held plenty of interest for train spotters, with both finalists in the Scottish Singles having the christian name Andrew, and Andrew being the patron saint of Scotland. Also it pitted a right handed player (Kelly) against a left handed player.
The weekend’s competition began on Friday evening with the quickfire threebowl New Zealand Shanghai Singles, in which Oliver Mason (Forbury Park), displayed an impressive run of form, defeating the Fairfield pair Murray Wilson and Doug Thomas in the final played Saturday morning.
The Shanghai plate final evolved into an allTaieri Club affair with Barry Milburn winning the race to score 31, defeating club mates Ken Walker and Mark Duncan.
Competition wraps up today with with the quarterfinals, semifinals and final of the New Zealand Ranking Singles, beginning at 8.30am this morning.