Bowls: Brassey finally nails Manurewa pairs title

By LINDSAY KNIGHT

Rowan Brassey yesterday finally gained one of the few major titles to have eluded him during his illustrious career.

Three times previously Brassey had been in the final of the Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club's pairs classic. On each occasion, in 1982, 1983 and again in 1991, he finished runner-up. But yesterday, partnered by his young Avondale clubmate Jamie Hill, Brassey made up for the deficit with interest.

In the final he and Hill, in a superb display of draw bowls on the Greengage synthetic surface, demolished Wanganui pair Ray Park and Ray Savage in little more than 100 minutes.

The score, after just 11 of the scheduled ends, was 17-2 in favour of Brassey and Hill when Park and Savage surrendered. Mathematically, the Wanganui bowlers had not reached a point of no return but, such was the precision of Brassey in particular, there was no possibility of his dropping 16 shots over four ends.

"It is good to win here at last," Brassey said. "We got away to a good start and, with the wind proving tricky, that was important."

It was Brassey and Hill's third joint major event this season and each time they have been victorious - in the Auckland centre championship triples and in the national fours in Wellington this month.

Their partnership will go a stage further when Hill, 21, accompanies Brassey to Australia to play for The Hills club, in Sydney, in the professional New South Wales SuperLeague.

Their powerful side include England's Commonwealth Games fours champion David Holt and leading Australian champion Cameron Curtis.

"The experience will do Jamie the world of good," Brassey said. "The Super League is like playing a test match every week."

Yesterday's win gives Brassey and Hill automatic entry to the prestigious Warilla pairs in New South Wales later this year. But, as Hill is committed to playing at Warilla with his New Zealand under-30 team-mate, Canterbury's Glen McDonald, Brassey will team up with Holt.

Park and Savage, forced constantly on to the drive in the final, probably peaked early yesterday with a tight 10-8 win in the semifinal over Wanganui's Sean Johnson and Manawatu's Philip Skoglund jun.

Brassey and Hill had a decisive victory over Dunedin's Terry and Shaun Scott.