Bowls: 'Retired' Lawson plays brilliantly

Reports of the retirement of former New Zealand bowler Gary Lawson are greatly exaggerated.

Lawson, whose retirement was announced by his wife, Judy, in a newspaper article after the national championships two weeks ago, showed that he is far from a spent force when he combined with Andrew Curtain to win the Burnside Invitation pairs yesterday.

Lawson and Curtain beat Marlborough pair Andre Smith and Lloyd Gallop 10-8.

Smith and Gallop stopped the New Zealand pair, Paul Girdler and Russell Meyer, 13-10 in the semifinals.

Lawson and Curtain beat New Zealand singles champion Mike Kernaghan and David Archer of Dunedin 13-1 in the other semifinal.

Lawson said it was far from his farewell performance.

He has one major goal left this season - to help Canterbury win the national centre title.

"We haven't played as well as we should in the last couple of years, and I want to help Canterbury win the title," said Lawson.

He will reassess his career at the start of next season.

Lawson and Curtain had to battle to beat Smith and Gallop.

After being evenly matched for the first nine ends they were able to put a small break on their opponents only on the 10th and 11th ends of the 12-end final.

"We were due to win one," Lawson said.

"If we'd had the luck at the nationals we had today we would have won a title in Dunedin.

"We played pretty well this weekend but I think that the rain helped us.

"We handled the conditions better than some, but these guys [Smith and Gallop] played well."

It was Curtain's first outdoor game since losing in the first round of the world indoor championships in England a week ago, and learning while he was away that he had been picked for the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team.

"It was good that I was able to play well here and repay some of the faith the selectors have shown in me."

- NZPA