Marsic’s four edged out by Kelly’s heroes

The spectators were reaching for the superlatives as Canterbury’s Andrew Kelly defeated Carlton Cornwall’s Wally Marsic in the feature game of the day in postsection of the men’s fours at the New Zealand bowls championships in New Plymouth yesterday.

The third-round clash turned into a fascinating contest as Kelly triumphed with his last bowl on an extra end, in a match that lasted 41⁄ hours and featured 11 killed ends.

Marsic and his side of Neil Fisher, Steve Cox and Colin Rogan had the better of the match, leading 9-2 after seven of the 18 ends. Shortly after, a four gave them a 17-10 lead with just four ends to play.

It should have been enough.

But Kelly, playing with Dan Delany, Chris Le Lievre and Raika Gregory, fought back with two threes. A single to Marsic made it a two-point variance playing the last end. Then the fun really began. Kelly killed the first attempt, Marsic the second, Delany the third, and Kelly the fourth attempt.

Finally, Kelly drew an absolute beauty with his last bowl at the fifth go at the 18th end which gave his side two shots and forced the game into overtime.

Marsic killed the first extra end. On the replay, Cox drew a front toucher, which in the gale force conditions was a mighty feat.

Kelly’s first drive missed, but his second was on target. The shot bowl and jack went flying. The jack rebounded off Le Lievre’s back bowl and landed in the ditch, leaving Kelly with the shot.

Though the conditions made play very rugged, the tension and pressure drives on offer were topshelf stuff.

‘‘We weren’t organised enough at the start,’’ a relieved Kelly said afterwards. ‘‘But we stuck in there and that’s what you get, I guess.’’

This morning Kelly was to meet Tauranga South’s Graham Skellern and his side of Paul Anderson, Chad Grant and Ray Wilson.

Skellern originally hails from Inglewood and had his first interest in the sport sparked by one of Taranaki’s finest skips, Barney Spurdle.

Yesterday, Skellern produced a Spurdle-like performance himself as his side trounced the 2010 winner Alvin Gardiner (Elmwood) 25-5, after leading 15-0.

The big surprise of the day, though, was the demise of Aramoho’s Peter Belliss in the third round. His composite lineup fell to Eastbourne’s Ray Lovie 21-16.

Belliss slipped 14-0 behind after five ends, and while he was back in the hunt at 14-11 down six ends later, Lovie and his side of David Walker, Grant Simms and Shane Rogers cribbed out to win.

Lovie was to meet Brian Baldwin (Musgrave Hill) this morning.

Baldwin, who beat Nick Grgicevich (Mt Albert) 20-13, has his regular team-mate Gary Mounsey with him and two fine Paritutu draw players, Darren Goodin and John Reid.

Plenty of other big names remain.

Havelock’s Ali Forsyth meets Cabramatta’s Rowan Brassey in another quarterfinal, with the other clash between Palmerston North’s Pat Horgan and Onehunga’s Richard Girvan.

Horgan sneaked a 14-12 win over fellow Manawatu team-mate Grant Davis (Northern) after the scores had been level with two ends to play.