Bowls: Edwards nails double at nationals

Jo Edwards (R) says she put pressure on Amy Brenton from the outset of their finals match and was able to take an early advantage. Photo / Otago Daily Times

Jo Edwards has already established herself as one of New Zealand's great international bowlers but had rarely stamped her mark on the domestic scene.

That changed yesterday when Edwards (Burnside) doubled her domestic tally and made herself the player of the championship by winning her third and fourth national open championship titles.

She has won two World Bowls pairs titles, a Commonwealth Games gold medal and the world indoor singles title for the last two years.

Edwards, 40, put the domestic record straight at the Taieri club yesterday by winning the singles and pairs titles.

She gave teenager Amy Brenton (Stoke) a lesson in singles play when she dominated the game and beat her 21-3.

Edwards also won the pairs with her world championship partner Val Smith when they beat the South Otago combination of Marilyn Patterson and Wynette McLachlan 17-11.

"I knew I had to put pressure on Amy who was playing in her first major final," Edwards said. "I tried to make my first bowl count.

"That put me on the front foot and I was then able to dictate the head."

She outwitted Brenton who did not alter the length of the ends when given the jack.

"Amy played a similar length to what I liked so it was not any trouble giving her the jack and keeping the last bowl myself," Edwards said.

Edwards knew she was up against a tougher opponent in the pairs against opposing skip McLachlan who gets herself competitively tuned by playing on the Gold Coast each winter.

Edwards and Smith took an early 5-0 lead on the first two ends and after seven of the 18 ends led 10-3.

"It's always good to get a buffer like that," Edwards said. "Being one down is okay as long as we didn't drop too many on a head. We worked hard to at least get the second shot and that worked well for us today."

Edwards demonstrated her skills in this game on two ends. The World Bowls champions were two down on the head when Edwards played her last bowl and drove out the two shot bowls to add an extra shot and extend the lead to 14-5 after 11 ends.

Edwards drew a toucher on the seventeenth end to win the game.

Ryan Bester and Chris le Lievre won the men's pairs final, beating Ali Forsyth and Matthew Gallop 20-9 at the Taieri club.

Canadian-born Bester and le Lievre from Auckland's Onehunga club were 0-3 down after the first end before taking command by winning the next nine ends to lead 17-3.

The men's singles crown did not leave Dunedin after North East Valley's Shaun Scott comfortably accounted for Petar Sain of Carlton Cornwall 21-13.

- Otago Daily Times