Bowls: Club loyalty despite composite win

Even Auckland master bowler Danny O'Connor found irony in the way he became the second-most successful player in national history yesterday.

For O'Connor's ninth national title, placing him behind only his old Okahu Bay mentor Nick Unkovich with 10, was achieved as part of a composite four, skipped by Australian-based Kiwi Richard Girvan and including Australian Wayne Turley and Steve Beel, from Dunedin's North-East Valley.

Until recently, O'Connor had been a staunch opponent of composite sides being eligible to play in the nationals, rather than just club combinations. His previous eight titles, apart from his singles in 1983, were won with Okahu Bay club-mates, as part of Unkovich-skipped fours in 1975-79, then 1981-82, with Rowan Brassey-skipped fours in 1990 and 1995 and with Brassey in the 1982 pairs.

And not even the part he played at three in Girvan's four in crushing Gary Lawson's composite combination 30-7 at Henderson yesterday after just 17 of the scheduled 21 ends, has swayed him from his view that a team representing a club is the ultimate.

"That's the way it should be," he said. "I still believe that. I'd still it rather be club stuff. But if this is the way it's going to be then none of us has much choice ... it's something you have to accept.

"It's just the same as having to play now with narrow bowls. It's something you have to live with."

And as long as he can play with three classy bowlers with whom he was teamed in these Dorchester-Holden nationals, O'Connor says he has no qualms about competing in another composite as he seeks another title to perhaps join Unkovich as the only bowlers with a bar to their national gold stars.

O'Connor, 54, and Beel, 50 today, were easily the oldest of the eight bowlers in yesterday's final and in each case their experience showed.

But O'Connor had no doubt that the big factor in the win was the Australian influence brought by Girvan, who has been based across the Tasman at the Taren Point club near Sydney for five years, and Turley, a full-time professional at Taren Point and a long-time representative, usually as a skip, for the New South Wales state side.

"They both had that hard-nosed Aussie attitude," O'Connor said. "They made sure that once we got ahead we kept our feet on their throats.

"Because if we'd given Gary and his boys a sniff they'd have taken it.

"They were mainly Cantabrians and they're like Aussies in their sport. They never say die."

It was the third time Girvan had been in a national fours final, finishing second each time in 2001 and to Lawson last year. His development since his move to Australia from Auckland, where he played at Okahu Bay under O'Connor's tutelage, had been remarkable.

But O'Connor was not sure whether he was ready yet for a place in a New Zealand team. "It was a pity really that they didn't pick him for the New Zealand under-30 team last year when he was still eligible."

The final, though, was pretty much decided on the opening few ends, which set a one-sided pattern which continued right through.

With Girvan drawing his three bowls dead on the kitty and with a marvellous O'Connor drive setting up four shots on the fifth end, Girvan soon had a 9-1 lead.

Beel then began to decisively outplay his opposite lead, Adam Newman, and a six on the 11th end took the score to 20-5, making the result even at the halfway stage a foregone conclusion. With nothing on the head Lawson was constantly forced on to the drive.

Lawson afterwards joked that he was just thankful his four managed even seven shots.

"We played poorly as a team and against a four of that class having to play catchup bowls was always going to be hard," he said.

Newman had been unwell all week and was clearly far from his best yesterday.

But Lawson would not blame any of his front three and predicted that as young bowlers on the way up Newman, Doug Wilson and Glen McDonald would benefit from the experience.

O'Connor's titles

* 1983 singles
* 1975 fours
* 1979 fours
* 1981 fours
* 1982 fours
* 1982 pairs
* 1990 pairs
* 1995 pairs
* 2005 fours