KEY POINTS:
New Zealand picked up their third gold medal at the World Bowls Championships in Christchurch today with Gary Lawson's mens fours sweeping aside previously unbeaten Australia.
The Black Jacks were never behind in a match they secured on the 17th end with a 20-10 advantage that made it impossible for the Australians who could only have scored a maximum eight if the 18th was played.
Lawson paid tribute to teammates Andrew Todd, Richard Girvan and Russell Meyer who, he said, played a "phenomenal" game up front.
"I've played in some good fours teams, but they played brilliantly today," he said.
Lawson made special mention of Girvan who had a great game today, drawing superbly to the jack in pressure situations.
"Girvo's probably had a bit of a battle in the last couple of months, but today's performance was probably as good as I've seen in a player," Lawson said.
"It was phenomenal the number of shots he played under pressure."
Lawson said they knew they needed a good start against the Australians, who went through section play, the quarterfinals and the semifinals unbeaten.
"We felt if we got behind it would be a hard day at the office," he said. "It's awesome ... a great day for New Zealand."
The Black Jacks went out to a 15-6 lead after 12 ends. Todd was on fire with his leading shots with Girvan and Meyer supporting well and Lawson always there to finish off.
With New Zealand holding shot in the 13th end, the Australians attempted four drives but missed them all and had only one live bowl on the rink. Lawson had a go at the lone target, but missed, then drew his last shot to give the Black Jacks one.
The Australians stormed back into the game in a shorter 14th end and were holding three when Lawson again missed with his trademark drive. He then tried a draw, but the Aussies finished with a four and looked to be steadying for a fightback.
Down by nine and needing a big end to cause problems for the Black Jacks, Australia was holding shot in the 17th when Meyer played a lovely bowl that sidled up to the jack, sat down and gave the New Zealanders the shot.
A desperate drive by the Australians clipped one Black Jack bowl out of play but left Meyer's sitting pretty and handed New Zealand the win without having to play out the 18th end.
As the celebrations began, Girvan bounded over the fence and into the grandstand to embrace his father, Alan.
"He's been here all week and he's a very nervous bowls-watcher," Girvan said. "But he'd managed to stay in the stands most of the time. It was great to have him here."
Girvan said he and his father won the Okahau Bay club pairs in 1999.
"Winning a title with Dad is one of my highlights, but I think this might just beat that," he said.
It was the second gold medal in a fortnight for Lawson and Meyer, who won the pair's title after the first week of the 15-day tournament.
Meyer said he was happy to be ditching the "bronzie" moniker he'd been given after picking up four previous bronze medals at world championships.
"It's been a long time trying to get one, so to get two in two weeks, it's outstanding," he said.
Black Jacks coach Dave Edwards praised a "real fours team performance".
"I'm ecstatic," he said.
"Once they got that real good lead, they'd played enough internationally to know it wasn't over and they nurtured that lead."
- NZPA
