Bowls: Brassey four end dream for Mt Maunganui side

Sid Giddy and his Mt Maunganui four were thwarted at the penultimate hurdle in their bid to make history at the national fours championships in Dunedin.

Rowan Brassey's star-studded Auckland composite side of Jamie Hill, Ross Haresnape and Kerry Chapman bundled Giddy out at the semifinal stage.

Level at 10-all, a five to Brassey on the 14th end broke the deadlock and the skips shook hands at 23-12 with one end still to play.

In the other semi, Alvin Gardiner, of Halswell, went into the final end 20-18 down to Ian Brown, of North End in Invercargill, but it took a further 40 minutes to find a winner as the game went into an extra end, with Brown eventually winning 21-20.

The match lasted 4 1/2 hours.

Earlier, Giddy had shut out the challenge of Sean Johnson's talented composite side 21-14, while Brassey had sneaked past Noel Millar, of Burnside, 17-13.

Brown had beaten Mike Kernaghan, of Dunedin, 18-9, and Gardiner had come from 13-8 down to win 22-14 against Mike Fitzgerald, of Caledonian in Dunedin.

Today's finals start with the fours at 8 am. The all-Wellington pairs final between Johnsonville clubmates Rob Ashton and Brendon Gibson follows, and the home-town battle for the singles, pitching 1990 winner Terry Scott, of North East Valley, against defending champ Mike Kernaghan, of Kaikorai, rounds off the day.