Bowls: Dickison's 3 wins helps Kerikeri upset Takapuna

An outstanding individual performance by singles player Dan Dickison spearheaded the Far North centre's Kerikeri to an upset win in the zone one regional bowls play-offs at Waipu yesterday at the expense of last year's national champions, Takapuna.

Dickison won all three of his matches by surprisingly big margins over three strong opponents, Grant Goodwin from Auckland's Hillsboro, John Dunn from Northland's Onerahi and Takapuna's Doug Wilson, as Kerikeri staged an amazing comeback.

Dickison, the nephew of 1986 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ian, beat Goodwin 21-7, Dunn 21-10 and Wilson 21-9.

But Dickison was not Kerikeri's only hero.

The pair of Paul Vegar and Robin Sheffield and the four of Jon Young, Rod Morris, Tiki Pedro and Ron Hayes also excelled, winning their last round matches.

That meant Kerikeri jumped from fourth at the end of the second round to nose out Hillsboro because of a better points differential.

In the women's section, North Harbour's Sunnybrae maintained a fine record in recent years to qualify for the third consecutive year for the national finals in Palmerston North.

Sunnybrae's singles player Lisa Dickson, the pair of Carole Frederick and Ruth Lynch, and the four of Mary Gulbrandsne, Lin East, Jan Jones and Colleen Sexton finished well ahead of Northland's Hikurangi, Auckland's New Lynn and Far North's Coopers Beach.