Bowls: Hema's four battle into last eight

Karen Hema. Photo / SNPA

Carlton-Cornwall's Karen Hema, one of Auckland bowls' most bubbly players, and her composite four made the last eight in the national women's championships at Browns Bay yesterday, but did it the hard way.

Hema's line-up lost their third and fourth games in qualifying rounds, so effectively entered the tournament's sudden-death phase even at that early stage. By winning the last two games in section play, they survived.

They eliminated the former national singles and pairs champion, Canterbury's Sandra Keith, then overwhelmed the Birkenhead four skipped by Gayle Melrose, who was part of that club's four who won the national title in Auckland in 2012.

Hema's side beat Melrose's four by an emphatic 21-4, with Melrose surrendering with four of the 18 ends left. That was a stunning result for Hema, as earlier Melrose's four had ended the tournament for national pairs champion Mandy Boyd spectacularly. With the scores locked at 14-14 on the last end, Boyd drove brilliantly to take the jack into the ditch, only for Melrose to draw the winning bowl within centimetres of the ditch's edge.

Hema said she never lost confidence in her players - last weekend's singles champion, Leigh Griffin, and juniors Bronwyn Stevens and Sarah Scott.

"I never gave up at any stage," Hema said.

The other skips to contest today's quarter-finals are Tanya Wheeler (Petone Central), Commonwealth Games representative Amy McIlory (Nelson), Colleen Pert (Hillsboro), Olivia Bloomfield (Auckland), with experienced Reen Stratford as her lead, Kristin Stampa (Hawera), Glenis Pidwell (Wanganui) and Bev Corbett (Hinuera).

The three most celebrated skips in the men's fours, Peter Belliss, Gary Lawson and Rob Ashton, made the last eight, although Belliss was again tested by Orewa's Peter Clark.

Belliss now plays what could be challenging opposition in the Hillsboro four skipped by Mike Galloway, who has with him David Clark, with whom he won the national pairs in 2001. For family and work reasons, they both interrupted what were promising bowls careers, as did their two, Gavin Brown. But they were all in fine form yesterday in eliminating an experienced Auckland four skipped by Wally Marsic.

Lawson, like Belliss, will also face testing opposition, with Wellington's Raymond Martin having performed consistently all week. The other men's skips in the quarters are Auckland's Gojko Bulog, Marlborough's Sanjhe Prasad and Michael Nagy with basically an Orewa line-up.