Bowls: McClintock's impressive showing lines up shot at back-to-back titles

Brown's Bay club bowler Elaine McClintock put herself on the brink of a notable feat of back-to-back titles at Henderson yesterday in the New Zealand Open.

Leading for a composite line-up of Tauranga skip Marilyn McGregor and club-mate Lisa Parlane, McClintock made the final of today's women's triples with impressive wins yesterday in the quarter-finals and the semis.

The McGregor-skipped triple now play the Waikato combination of Annette Bell, Doreen Schumacher and Bev Corbett and if they win it will be a repeat McClintock's success last year when she led for the winning Bay of Plenty triple, skipped by Raewyn Willis and with former international Patsy Jorgensen in the middle.

It was a big day, too, for Parlane, who like McClintock is a North Harbour centre representative, as she made the singles semifinals.

The McGregor triple accounted for two Australian combinations, the first skipped by Karen Murphy, whose side of Kay Moran and Anne Johns played in pink, to show their support of the McGrath Foundation in its fight against breast cancer, and the second skipped by Kelli Wray.

The experienced threesome skipped by Bell also had their share of dramas. They picked up a three on the last end with Bell's last bowl to pip Noeleen Culpan's North Harbour lineup, then won by just one point in the semifinal against a strong Auckland side of Karen de Jongh, Wendy Jensen and Bev Crowe.

Moran's luck was out in the singles, when Canterbury's Jan Khan won the first women's semifinal, 21-17 and she and Murphy fell in the pairs semifinals to Australians, Johns and Penny Landherr, who meet Canterbury's Jan Shirley and Raelene Peters in the final.

A largely forgettable tournament for the male Black Jacks continued with the semifinal exit in the men's triples of Ali Forsyth, Richard Girvan and Andrew Todd. They were beaten narrowly by national representatives Shannon McIlroy and Jamie Hill, plus an Avondale club bowler Brett Hassall.

Onehunga's Danny Delany, Tom Delany and Chris Le Lievre made it an all-Auckland final by crushing North Harbour veterans Ross Haresnape, John Walker and Colin Rogan, 17-1.

Winners of the triples last year, Canterbury's Shayne Sincock and West Coaster Lance Pascoe made the pairs final against Kevin Robinson and Justin Goodwin with an easy win over Aucklanders Joe Whitelaw and Tusi Tumua.