Bowls: Lawson to appeal against fine

New Zealand has suspended national fours skipper Gary Lawson and fined him and his teammates after they were found guilty of throwing an end during an Asia-Pacific championship match in Malaysia last August.

But Lawson said last night he and his teammates intended to appeal against their punishments to the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand.

"The matter should have been dealt with in Malaysia," he said.

Bowls NZ chairman John Carter last month confirmed the decision of the judicial committee finding Lawson, Jamie Hill, Shane Sincock and Shannon McIlroy deliberately lost an end at the Kuala Lumpur tournament.

New Zealand, who had already qualified for post-section play, led Thailand 15-12 in their last pool match before conceding a four on the penultimate end and another shot on the last, to lose 15-17.

To qualify for post section play, Canada needed to beat Thailand in their final section play match, which followed the New Zealand-Thailand match, but unexpectedly lost.

They then lodged a protest which Lawson said was informal, but it was taken to the world controlling body, who then asked Bowls NZ to investigate the allegations.

The players were stood down from the national squad and lost their high-performance payments after it was determined the allegations had to be heard by the judicial commission.

Lawson said last night he had been fined $5000 and suspended for six months, while his teammates had each been fined $1000 and not suspended.

He said the penalty was "really irrelevant", and the four were appealing.

"We're going to go there and we think we've got a really good case to put up to the Sports Tribunal.

"We don't believe that Bowls New Zealand had the jurisdiction to actually charge us in the first place.

"We've gone through, and our lawyers have gone through, the constitution of World Bowls and we believe that it should have been dealt with in Malaysia."

- NZPA