Bowls: Fisher pulls off great escape to secure final spot

Raika Gregory. Photo / Natalie Slade

They were calling Howick bowler Neil Fisher "Houdini" at the Carlton-Cornwall club after his amazing passage yesterday into the national singles final.

Fisher, who will meet Nelson's Peter Hodson in today's final, came from a seemingly impossible position at first 9-0 down, then 14-3 and 15-4 to beat Waikato's Raika Gregory 21-19. He had already staged a dramatic recovery to beat Black Jack Danny Delaney, from Onehunga, in their last 16 round clash.

On that occasion, having frittered a 20-15 lead, Fisher was three down on the last end with the scores 20-20 when with his last bowl his drive carried the jack into the ditch.

Fisher had an easy quarter-final win over the Kapiti club's Paul Howell and that meant a long break before his showdown against Gregory, who had a more gruelling contest before beating the talented Canterbury player Kelvin Scott.

Fresh from that game, Gregory shot away to a 9-0 lead and with his booming drives working well looked to have an unassailable lead. Fisher said his long wait between matches had nothing to do with his poor start.

"I just couldn't find my weight because the rink was nowhere near as fast as the one I'd previously played on," he said.

A change of strategy worked for him and he was careful to space his bowls to avoid giving Gregory an easy target.

For 62-year-old Fisher it will be his first time in a national final, though he did win the New Zealand Open late last year. Gregory was also a winner of the Open at Henderson in 2010.

Fisher's opponent in the final, Hodson, will face a busy schedule today as he and his partner Jimmy Pugh will be in the pairs semifinals. That will give the 45-year Stoke club player a good chance of winning the tournament's consistency prize. He too has never been in a national final but has won a national inter-club title with Stoke.

In the singles semifinal Hodson beat Henderson's Steve Cox 21-17. In his quarter-final against Waikato's Phil Bennett, Cox staged his own escape act. With the score tied at 20-20 and three down on the head, he scattered all of Bennett's bowls with his last bowl.

Cox started the day with a 21-14 win over Black Jack Richard Girvan, while Gregory made the semifinals with a gritty win over Browns Bay's Colin Rogan.