Bowls: Bowling pairs a family affair

By BOB PEARCE

The pairs semifinals in the national bowls championships in Auckland on Sunday will be something of a family affair.

Brothers Russell and Ian Meyer will take on Peter Belliss and Justin Goodwin in one game. Mike Galloway, a cousin of the Meyers, and David Clark will play Ross Haresnape and Neville Hill in the other.

If anyone deserves a reward for hard work it is Galloway. He is the greenkeeper for the Pakuranga club, which has played host to several days of competition.

"It has meant several 6.15 am starts to work on the greens before going to play," he said yesterday.

But the early start seems to have helped his form. He is into the last 16 of the singles today and admits to being in the groove.

Galloway, aged 34, has not yet tasted victory at the nationals, but won Superbowls three years ago and a mixed title with Marlene Castle. His partnership with Pakuranga clubmate Clark is not a regular one, but the two have combined well for some convincing wins. Yesterday morning they beat David File (Te Karaka) and Adam Newman (Victoria), and in the quarter-finals Pere Paul and Reg Sim, of Ngongotaha.

Paul and his possum-hunting lead had earlier eliminated veteran Ivan Kostanich (Helensville).

Greenkeepers have thrived at the championships, with Hill, who tends the Avondale greens, through to the semis with clubmate Haresnape.

They beat Rob Muir and Jim Murphy from Thames to reach the semifinals. Muir had earlier accounted for singles titleholder Petar Sain (Carlton).

Haresnape won a national pairs title with the legendary Nick Unkovich in 1991 and a fours title in 1995 in an Okahu Bay team skipped by Rowan Brassey.

The Meyers may be brothers, but they have not played together much recently, with Russell, the older, based in Australia, and Ian at the Northern club in Palmerston North.

Russell Meyer was in the pair and the four who won bronze medals at the world championships in South Africa last year. He also won the national pairs in 1998 with Peter Shaw.

Yesterday, he was in masterly form as the brothers beat the Canterbury pair Glen McDonald and Nigel Godman to reach the semis.

Belliss has drawn admiration all round for his play at this Tower tournament. With Goodwin, another Australian-based player, as his lead, he coasted into the semis with a 19-7 win over Ray Park and Ray Savage, of Wanganui.

Today, in the last 16 of the singles at Onehunga, an early clash pits Galloway against Adam Newman, the Wellingtonian who hit a rich vein of form to oust national representative Andrew Curtain (Elmwood).

By this evening the singles finalists to play at Onehunga on Monday afternoon will have been found.