Hope excels in qualifying round
CALEB Hope (Gore) hit his straps to become a worthy early favourite to win the Dunedin regional qualifying round of the International Singles next weekend.
Qualifying rounds got under way at the Dunedin Bowls Stadium on Friday night with all rounds up until the semifinal stage completed on Saturday. The Dunedin regional finalist will be found next Saturday to compete in the national final in Hastings early next month. The national winner will gain automatic entry to the international final in England in November.
Hope, the ‘‘Young Turk’’ from the Gore Club, stole the show, eliminating tournament favourite Andrew Kelly (Canterbury) at the quarterfinal stage, to set up a semifinal clash next Saturday with veteran and playingthrough champion Ken Walker (Taieri).
Walker won a thrilling quarterfinal tie break against Ray Webster (Forbury Park). The winner will then face the victor of the other semifinal between young guns Marty Kreft (Taieri) and Elliott Mason (Forbury Park). The cream was certainly rising to the top to set up what will surely be an epic final.
Hope got away to the best possible start with a solid 65, 94 victory over fellow Southlander Roger Stevens, then followed this up with a 76, 82 victory over Mario Sopp in the second round. It was not until his clash with Doug Thomas that Hope was forced to dig deep into his skills.
After Hope won the first set convincingly 103, Thomas bounced back to put Hope to the sword, handing out a 122 thrashing and forcing a tie break. Hope then displayed the skills of a championinwaiting by winning the pressurecooker tiebreak 21 to set up a quarterfinal clash with Kelly.
Hope won the match against Kelly 86, 84 with some super draw and counterplay.
‘‘Caleb is obviously a pretty good player and it just wasn’t my day,’’ Kelly said.
‘‘It was a good game. But just a few times I had to play a number of big shots when Andrew had his draw flowing,’’ Hope said.
In competition earlier in the PBA season, Hope was a quarterfinalist in Welsh and Scottish singles competition, and said he was ‘‘definitely pretty happy getting into a semifinal’’.