Bowls: Brassey's four take title despite illness

Diabetic Ross Haresnape was struggling to see the far end of the rink during the national fours final in the Hutt Valley yesterday after running out of medication.

Haresnape, who played lead for Rowan Brassey's winning Avondale four, revealed after the final that he had run out of diamicron and metformin, the two drugs he has used to control his diabetes for the past 12 years.

"I thought I had brought enough to get me through the tournament, but I ran out about two days ago.

"It [not taking the drugs] means my eyes are not so hot and I get a bit sleepy and tired," the Auckland taxi driver said.

"I'll take my empty bottle to the chemist today and hopefully that will be as good as a prescription."

Brassey's four beat Gary Lawson's composite side 26-21 in the final, enabling Brassey to retain the fours title.

It was Haresnape's fourth national title, and third with Brassey.

A former rugby league centre for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the 1960s, Haresnape played in Brassey's winning four last year and in 1995, and won a pairs crown with Nick Unkovich in Wellington in 1991.

Lawson's four were out of the blocks quickest, a three on the first end and a four on the third giving them a 7-1 advantage.

Brassey needed to counter quickly. With Lawson lying at least four on the next end, Brassey produced two superb shots, trailing the jack into the ditch for two and then adding a further counter with his second.

Instead of a possible 11-1, the gap had closed to 7-4, and when Brassey scored again, three and then a two, he led 9-7 after six ends.

The two sides traded ends and shots to the 16th, where Brassey again produced a telling shot, drawing dead to move from two down to one up, and a 16-14 lead.

From there Brassey extended to be 20-15 after 19, and then 25-17, thanks to a telling five on the 21st. He closed out the match 26-21, with Lawson, needing a miracle seven on the last to force an extra end, managing just a two.

It is Brassey's sixth fours win and his seventh national title, while 21-year-old Jamie Hill claimed his second, and Mike Reid notched his first.

Earlier in the championship, Brassey went out of the singles in the first post-section upset, to Okahu Bay's Neville Hill, 21-14, and in the pairs was beaten in the quarter-finals by Naenae's Terry Lynch and Ron Pilcher 22-11.

It was a tough championship for Lawson. In the singles, he lost his semifinal to Hutt butcher Phil Powell 21-15, and in the pairs went down in the final to Aucklanders Petar Sain and Wally Marcis 17-8.

His reward was the Consistency Award, but a bigger prize may be around the corner.

The national selectors will announce today the team to take on Australia in the transtasman test series early next month.