Bowls: Nick's glory was shortlived

By Graham Skellern

CHRISTCHURCH - Carlton's Nick Krajancic would have been reflecting on the ironies of lawn bowling life when he put his weary feet up at his rented home last evening.

After playing non-stop for a week to win the national fours championship on Sunday, he yesterday plummeted out of the singles by failing to win his last two games in qualifying play.

Krajancic's demise began in the third game when he lost 16-21 to the bowler he beat in the national fours final, Wanganui's Chris Waterson. The more experienced Waterson, who played well in Sunday's final to keep his team in the game, was not about to be beaten two days in a row by the enthusiastic Carlton Croatian.

Krajancic, mind you, had a tough draw. He lost to young Wellington representative Cory Carroll 13-21 in the fourth game.

There were very few serious casualties during qualifying. The pairs start today before the players move back into knockout post-section play in the singles tomorrow.

Another who did bite the dust was the 1982 national singles champion Jim Scott (North East Valley), who unexpectedly lost to Andy Shankland (Papanui Workingmen's Club) 15-21 and Lex Stewart (Lincoln) 20-21.

Malcolm Kidd, the chairman of Bowls New Zealand and a Waikato representative, lost his first two games, one of them to the Auckland Academy player and former soccer international Neville Siebert (Rawhiti), 11-21.

Siebert, too, finished the day sitting on the sideline after dropping his last two games to experienced campaigners Kevin Boothby (Hamilton) 17-21 and Kevin Harmon (Burnside) 15-21.

Krajancic's team-mates, Petar Sain, Alf Dickens and Ivan Zonich - who provided Carlton with their ninth national fours title and 21st overall - put the celebrations behind them and safely traversed the minefield of qualifying.

But Sain and Zonich dropped a match, losing to Gavin Lea (Darfield) 17-21 and Tony Thomas (Linwood) 20-21 respectively. Zonich fought back from 8-18 to level the score at 20-all against Thomas, a Canterbury representative.

The 1996 singles champion, Nino Vlahovic (Carlton), had a tough, 21-20 initial win over Dunedin's Ivan Webber but then got into his stride to win his next three games 21-15, 21-4, 21-13.

The strong Hillsboro club provided eight qualifiers, national under-25 representative Justin Goodwin, father and son Nick and Neven Grgivevich, John Harding, Clive Major, Richard Corry, Brett Hassall and Glyn Judson.

Goodwin had a nervous day, losing his first game to the wily Alf Williamson (Fendalton) 14-21 and then just edging out Dunedin representative Jeff Johnston (St Clair) 21-10 in his third match. Neven Grgicevich, a semifinalist in Wellington last year, made another fine start, winning his games 21-19, 21-8, 21-12.

Rawhiti produced four qualifers, Danny Delany, Ken Fitness, Pat Campbell and Neville Hill, all with the credentials to go far.

The comeback kid, Gary Lawson, winner of the national singles in 1989 and 1994, had one of his tougher qualifying days. He lost his first match 12-21 to Howard Smith (Beckenham) and then another Smith - Andre, last year's fours champion - came along and provided a tough encounter before Lawson won 21-17.

Lawson then had to play his great friend and current New Zealand representative Andy Curtain in a do-or-die fourth game. Lawson got ahead for the first time at 16-15 and scored the vital points over the closing ends to win 21-18 and keep alive his hopes for a third national singles title.