Merrilees threatening Glassey’s PBA domination
SOUTHLANDER Craig Merrilees is threatening Murray Glassey’s domination of the New Zealand Professional Bowls Association.
Glassey has enjoyed the No 1 spot for three years but Merrilees is moving ahead of his Hawke’s Bay rival in the race to be New Zealand yearend No 1.
While falling early in the Invercargill World Indoor Singles qualifier,
Merrilees won the warmup ranking singles event on the Saturday to overtake
Glassey.
And it appears that
Glassey now has a rival for tournament wins in Hawke’s Bay.
Dean Drummond put in a fantastic display, winning all of his 10 matches over the weekend to claim both the ranking singles and World Indoor Singles qualifier tournaments.
Drummond climbs to third in the New Zealand provisional rankings ahead of Andrew Kelly (Canterbury) and Bradley Down (Wellington).
Rhonda Adams (Taranaki) continues to lead the race for the top woman in the NZ PBA rankings, although fellow New Plymouth venue competitor Cathy Andrews is closing the gap fast after another final, going down to Craig Johns in their World Indoor Singles qualifier.
Linda Ralph went one better winning the Auckland World Indoor singles qualifier and is the thirdbest woman in therankings.
The best rookie after two of three qualifier weekends is Southlander Kerry Heffer who will be appearing at the NZ PBA finals weekend in Hastings in September after winning Invercargill’s World Indoor Pairs qualifier in June.
The World Indoor Singles qualifier last weekend was won by Shane Elliott who will attend his fourth finals weekend.
The only multiple winner among qualifiers so far this year is last year’s rookie of the year Ray Martin (Wellington), who added to his Scottish Singles qualifier win by winning Wellington’s World Indoor singles qualifier, as well.
Hamilton’s World Indoor Singles qualifier resulted in a welcome return by Chris Lourie (Waikato) to the winner’s circle.
The former New Zealand No 1 played twice on the World Bowls Tour in the UK and four times for New Zealand against Australia until 2013 but has played fleetingly since then until this year.