KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand bowls selectors would have had a blue fit after the first results of the men's singles at the national championships in Dunedin yesterday. Virtually every member of the national squad was beaten, among them hot-shot teenager Shannon McIlroy, whom the TAB had installed as favourite.
Upended on tricky, rain-affected, greens were fellow internationals Andrew Todd, Doug Wilson, Richard Girvan and Dwayne Cameron as well as defending champion Alan Dickson and New Zealand under-25 representative Richard Collett.
Most of the national stars won their remaining games to qualify for today's post-section action. Dickson fought back from 9-14 down against second-year player Brent Hickey (Alexandra) to survive while Wilson came through a tough contest against Blenheim teenager Matt Gallop.
Three who didn't recover were Girvan and Collett, and two-time former champion Mike Kernaghan. They will be mere spectators when singles post-section starts on Tuesday. The only member of the New Zealand squad to come through unscathed was Nelson's Ali Forsyth, who won the event in 2003 and 2004. He breezed through to three comfortable victories.
The individual who caused titleholder Dickson grief in the morning was Dunedin district court judge Stephen O'Driscoll, who beat him 21-18. Yet O'Driscoll, who did qualify, says he doesn't enjoy playing singles.
"I only entered because we had the nationals in our own back yard _ it was too good an opportunity to miss." A judge for 22 years and married to Lynley, sister of Dunedin bowling identities Jim and Terry Scott, O'Driscoll much prefers playing lead in pairs, triples and fours and letting others make the decisions.
"I have to make decisions all week in court, at weekends when I'm playing bowls I let other people make the decisions."
Others who grabbed the headlines in the morning of upsets were Pakuranga's John Simons who beat Cameron 21-20, Hutt's Paul Warren who gave Girvan his first loss, Outram's Rex Calder who downed Todd and Kia Toa's Sean O'Neill who upended Wilson.
Those who cruised through to post-section places included Rowan Brassey, who still seeks that elusive first singles title, Australian-based players Ryan Bester and Bruce McNish and former champions Ken Walker, Jim Scott, Peter Sain, Justin Goodwin and Kelvin Scott.
Meanwhile, defending women's pairs champions Sharon Sims and Mary Campbell showed great fighting qualities.
After dropping two matches, they found themselves 7-9 against Malaysians Furyana Saroj and Maisarah Aminludin, at which point they produced play of true international quality to come away for a convincing 17-9 victory. They then comfortably won their final game.
Sims said they relished the challenge against the Malaysians.
"To be honest, qualifying opponents bring out our best. We hadn't been playing too well until then."
The most impressive qualifiers in the women's pairs were Malaysians Siti Zalina Ahmad and Nor Hashimah Ismail, who registered six straight victories. The only other six-winner was Paulette Mytton (Browns Bay) and Raelene Casle (Onehunga).
Others who loom as serious challengers for the title are Jo Edwards and Val Smith (United), Jan Malcolm (Frankton Railway) and Serena Matthews (Burnside), Lois Ritson (Inglewood) and Cathy Fleming (Paritutu), Lorraine Davis and Bev Heathcote (Burnside), Maureen Parker (Kensington) and Reen Stratford (Henderson) and Ann Muir and Nancy Jujnovich (Kensington).
Post-section play in the women's singles is scheduled for tomorrow.
- NZPA
