Bowls: McIlroy leads from front to win triples

Shannon McIlroy was in top form yesterday. Photo / Dean Purcell

Shannon McIlroy's future as a bowls international, and, to a lesser extent, that of Jamie Hill, could hang on the outcome of a Bowls New Zealand inquiry early next month into a result of a game involving the Black Jacks at this year's Asia-Pacific tournament.

As members of a four skipped by Gary Lawson which lost a game allegedly in suspicious circumstances, McIlroy and Hill have been placed in a temporary suspension.

But should the claim be upheld, and McIlroy is somehow penalised further, the huge loss this would be nationally was emphasised at Henderson yesterday when McIlroy skipped Hill and Avondale's Brett Hassall to the New Zealand Open triples title.

In the final, the combination made a great recovery, inspired by McIlroy, to win 19-13 over the Onehunga lineup of Danny Delany, his brother Tom and Chris Le Lievre.

After 12 of the 15 ends Onehunga led 13-11 and looked a likely winner as they held shot on the 13th end. But McIlroy showed his class with a slightly weighted shot to sit out the Delany bowl and give himself four shots and a critical 15-13 lead.

Three on the 14th end and a single on the last end gave McIlroy a six-shot win, despite the game being much tighter than that margin suggested.

Hill, from Auckland's Rawhiti club, at 28 and a family man, is not worried about his own international future as he says he has had enough. But he insisted that it would be tragic if McIlroy was lost.

In Hill's view the 22-year old now based in Nelson is New Zealand's next Peter Belliss.

Hassall played only as a replacement for Lawson, who was unavailable for the triples.

He was somewhat sheepish in accepting his $1000 share of the first prize and as lead he did struggle by bowling short.

Though he improved, he quipped that McIlroy and Hill had won a major triples title playing pairs.

A Waikato composite lineup of Annette Bell, Doreen Schumacher and Bev Corbett, all highly experienced bowlers, won the women's triples, recovering from a slow start to beat Tauranga's Marilyn McLeod and North Harbour's Elaine McClintock and Lisa Parlane 13-6.

Canterbury's Jan Shirley and Raelene Peters won the women's pairs final in a 13-12 thriller over Australia's Anne Johns and Penny Landherr.