Cool Claydon on a big roll

ON TOP: John Claydon played "pretty good" bowls over the two days and has built up a really good record.

It was a popular victory when Masterton's John Claydon snared Bowls Wairarapa's open men's singles title last weekend.

A laid-back individual who, by his own admission, plays the sport more for the enjoyment than the thrill of success, Claydon has still managed to build a record most bowlers would cherish.

He now has four open singles championships in his 27 centre titles and none of them would have been achieved more impressively than his latest victory.

Claydon came through his three pool games undefeated and continued his march to the final by beating Masterton clubmate Mark Morete 21-17 in the quarter-finals and Naenae visitor Ken Adderley 21-12 in the semis.

The path to the decider was rather different for another experienced campaigner, Featherston's Les O'Donovan. After suffering a surprise loss to Gary Caffell (Masterton) in the first of his pool games, he had to win the next three to qualify for post-section play. It was well into Saturday evening when that goal was achieved and then he had the misfortune to be among the two qualifiers to miss the bye for first round play on Sunday. The other was Warren Fisher (Masterton) and, after O'Donovan won their duel, he went on to beat Richard Anderson (Masterton) 21-18 in the quarters and Ian Monaghan (Masterton) 21-11 in the semis.

Expectations were for a closely-contested final but, while both players played some outstanding draw bowls, Claydon was the more consistent and he triumphed over O'Donovan 21-12.

Claydon was typically modest after his win, saying he had managed to play some "pretty good" bowls over the two days and was delighted to do battle with an old adversary, and long-time Wairarapa teammate, O'Donovan for the spoils.

"I guess we didn't do too bad for a couple of pensioners, did we," he said.

Don't expect Claydon to focus his attention more on singles in the future though. A noted fours skip, he makes no secret of preferring the team disciplines in bowls.

"I like to have a bit of a laugh and singles doesn't give you too many chances to do that."

The finals of Bowls Wairarapa's open pairs championships played this month saw victory by a solitary shot in both cases. All players involved were from the Masterton club with the women's final being won by Judith Wyeth and Fiona Mancer over Edith Kern and Pam Hoblyn and the men's final by Ian Monaghan and Scott MacKenzie over Warren Fisher and Laurie Field.