Bowls: Rawhiti's hero chases singles glory

Photo / Thinkstock

The Rawhiti club's Mike Bradshaw, having already made today's men's singles final, confirmed himself as the outstanding bowler at this week's New Zealand Open by yesterday winning the pairs title at Henderson.

Bradshaw and his clubmate Neville Hill held off the fast-finishing Birkenhead pair of Rod Mahon and Shane Gibson to win the final 16-14.

Bradshaw will now meet Raika Gregory in the singles final.

Although little known outside Auckland, Bradshaw, with five centre titles, has compiled a worthy record usually as a lead in his 20 years in the sport, a reflection of the fact he has come under the influence of some of the game's most legendary bowlers.

He started at Ellerslie, where an early mentor was the late Bob McDonald, and then had a stint at Avondale, where another tutor was Rowan Brassey. "The best advice Rowan gave me was to stick with leading," he said.

And his draw play from the front was a key factor in yesterday's win.

Bradshaw and Hill took the title despite a major wobble over the final five ends, when in the words of Hill "we lost the plot". They appeared to be cruising at 15-2 after 10 of the 15 ends. But they dropped a maximum six on the 11th end and then a four on the 12th.

A Waikato composite of Annette Bell, Doreen Schumacher and Bev Corbett made it back-to-back titles by comfortably winning the women's triples final from Canterbury's Jan Shirley and Raelene Peters and their Auckland lead Olivia Broomfield.

The national selection of Clare McCaul, from Wellington's Silverstream club, and Adele Greenfield, from Canterbury's Beckenham club, won the women's pairs final 17-14 from Point Chevalier's Jenny Jones and Fay Yates.

The Open ends today with the men's and women's singles finals and the men's triples final.