Bowls: Narrow miss in world title bid

New Zealand's bid for the men's world bowls championship narrowly failed on the second-last day of competition in Ayr, Scotland, yesterday.

With bronze medals confirmed, Russell Meyer won his rescheduled playoff over Fiji 21-12 to finish third in the singles.

But Gary Lawson's four slipped to a last-end 17-18 loss to England, finishing fourth.

That enabled Scotland to claim the Leonard Trophy overall team title for the fifth time, ahead of the New Zealanders.

A playoff victory over Spain and a fifth placing for their four confirmed that they could not be caught.

But the margin could not have been much closer.

Australian Steve Glasson won the singles gold medal, beating the favourite, Scotland's Alex Marshall, 21-15.

A capacity crowd packed the stands, hoping to see Marshall complete an indoor/outdoor world singles double on his home soil.

But it was Glasson who, 20-15 ahead but three down on the end, claimed the single he needed for victory with yet another perfect draw to the jack.

He later picked up the white, which had been left on the rink, on his way to the podium, and will not be giving it back.

Ireland's Jim Baker added gold to his pairs silver with a 19-18 win over Australia in the fours final.

New Zealand manager Peter Shaw said his team produced a commendable effort to win bronze medals in the singles, pairs and fours, and a silver in the triples.

"With a medal in each discipline we are the most successful New Zealand team ever, so we have to be pleased," Shaw said.

"We've got to be happy that we've finished second in the world, out of 24 teams here.

"But we wanted to come back to New Zealand as world champions, and we aren't able to do that."

Meyer moved smoothly to victory yesterday, and Lawson and his team-mates - Sean Johnson, Paul Girdler and Rowan Brassey - were seemingly in command 15-6 against England with six ends remaining.

But the England four then made a good conversion to score a four that sparked a revival.

They started to find the jack and applied enormous pressure, scoring 10 unanswered shots to take the lead for the first time at 16-15 with two to play.

Lawson drew two to a sprung jack to be back in front playing the last end, but missed by millimetres a trail on the jack that would have brought the win.

He hit the target but not quite cleanly enough and the jack sliced for an England two.


- NZPA