Forsyth bags another title
Mandy Boyd and Ali Forsyth have skipped their teams to victory in the fours finals at the New Zealand bowls championships in Dunedin.
Boyd and her side of sister, Angela, Sheryl McLean and Leigh Griffin edged Sandra Keith’s team
16-15 on an extra end in the women’s final yesterday.
The men’s final saw Forsyth’s quartet of Justin Goodwin, Shannon McIlroy and Gary Lawson overturn an early deficit to beat Sheldon Bagrie-Howley’s unit
21-13.
The victory by Forsyth’s dream team, not before a few anxious moments, completed the clean sweep of titles for the foursome at the nationals, which emulated the same feat a Lawson-skipped side achieved in 1994.
Forsyth, the 2016 world champ fours skip, and Lawson, a former world champion, won the pairs on Sunday with McIlroy, the world champion, taking out the singles title.
Bagrie-Howley’s team of Jessie Russell, Seamus Curtin and Taylor Horn started the final brightly and when Bagrie-Howley sat through Forsyth’s closest bowl on the fourth end to net a count of five, the young team had an 8-1 lead. An upset was on the cards.
But they didn’t attack on the next end, the draws were under and over, and Forsyth pulled back a four.
Two ends later the teams were even and they remained within two shots of each other until the 15th end.
By that point, Forsyth’s side had edged in front 15-13, with McIlroy and Lawson drawing well. They did again on the 15th, before Horn drew a superb shot, only for Bagrie-Howley, in an attempt to consolidate the head, turned out the bowl to leave Forsyth with two.
Forsyth’s side called the tune on the next, and Bagrie-Howley was unsuccessful with two weighted shots, three more points giving Forsyth a seven shot buffer.
But following a brilliant Horn drive, Forsyth found himself four down when he played his last bowl on the 17th end. He trailed the jack 30cm for shot and Bagrie-Howley couldn’t retrieve the head.
‘‘It’s a privilege to win it,’’ Forsyth said. ‘‘The young guys [Bagrie-Howley’s team] should be proud of themselves.’’
Forsyth now has nine national titles, Lawson has 13, McIlroy four and Goodwin three.
While the men’s final was of excellent quality, with some immaculate heads, the women’s game was often scrappy, but the closeness of it maintained the interest until the last bowl was played.
Keith’s side of Selina Goddard, Amy McIlroy and Serena Matthews did the best at the start, with Goddard leading well to open up a 7-1 lead.
But Mandy Boyd improved a count of one to four when she trailed the jack on the fifth end, and three successive singles followed to give Boyd a two-point lead.
McIlroy had a good spell, her bowls setting up a count of three for Keith’s side shortly after. But Griffin converted the subsequent two ends with jack trails, giving Boyd a 13-10 lead.
Singles were the order of the day from then on, with Boyd holding just a one-point lead on the last end.
Keith got the shot to force the game into overtime.
With her second delivery, Goddard hit in Angela Boyd’s bowl for shot. On the push, Matthews dislodged the jack, but it went back to McLean’s bowl. Keith, running twice, missed narrowly to leave the title with Boyd’s team.
‘‘These are the games you come to the nationals for,’’ Mandy Boyd said.
With the win, Angela Boyd won her gold star for five national titles, while it was McLean’s first, Griffin’s third and Mandy Boyd’s sixth.
Blackjacks stars Shannon McIlroy and Jo Edwards were named the most consistent players of the tournament.