Bowls: It's Ashton v Gibson in pairs final clash

The Wellington suburb of Johnsonville will have a new national title to celebrate on Monday, after skips Rob Ashton and Brendon Gibson won through to the pairs final of the men's national championships in Dunedin yesterday.

Gibson, who has never skipped at the nationals before and who hardly ever skips even in club games, is partnered by clubmate Grant Wakefield, but the Johnsonville party will be gatecrashed by Ashton's lead, Eddie Irving, from the Naenae club in the Hutt Valley.

Unheralded Gibson won through against the more fancied combination of Leo Leonard, from Kia Toa in Timaru, and talented youngster Ali Forsyth, from Stoke in Nelson, in a rain-interrupted semifinal which eventually ended at 19-17.

Ashton and Irving ended the giantkilling of Warren Taylor and Kerry Becks, from Kaiapoi WMC in Christchurch, controlling their semifinal and closing the South Islanders out 20-8.

Earlier in the day, Taylor and Becks, who had also reached the last 16 in the fours, despatched Rowan Brassey and Ross Haresnape 13-10, thanks to a last-bowl toucher from Taylor.

The Kaiapoi pair then went on to edge out Ray Park and Ray Savage, from Wanganui, 13-12 before Ashton halted their progress in the semis.

North Island hopes rested on the Wellington teams after Graham Skellern and Clive Claridge, from Tauranga South, had bowed out 19-12 to Murray Clydesdale and Robbie Thomson, of Fairfield, in Dunedin, and Tokoroa's Kevin Robinson and Neville Risbridge lost to Leonard, 16-14, in the quarter-finals.

In the singles today, 159 qualifiers start the knockout phase, with the feature match a first-round clash between former international team-mates Brassey and Gary Lawson.