Bowls: Women's singles a close-fought battle

Jan Khan may have lost the women's singles final at the New Zealand Bowls Open at Henderson yesterday, but still gained enough glory to advance her claims for inclusion in the national side for the Commonwealth Games.

Khan lost to Australia's Sharyn Renshaw 21-19, but only after making a superb comeback which almost brought her a near-miraculous win.

Down 5-15 after being outplayed by Renshaw's deadly draw play, Khan rallied to win seven of the next 10 ends to a point where at only 20-19 down and holding shot she was on the verge of what had seemed an unlikely win.

But Renshaw then unleashed a run shot which she agreed had been both "brave and stupid" to remove a gallant Khan's shot bowl and take the victory.

Australia's reserve at the 2008 World championships in Christchurch, Renshaw now has three New Zealand Open titles, also winning the singles in 2007 and being in the champion four at the same tournament.

Equally as tense and as thrilling was the men's singles final, with national representative Richard Girvan recovering from 11-4 down to beat Pakuranga's accomplished Neil Fisher, an Auckland representative and centre gold-star holder, 21-20.

Though overshadowed by the singles contests, the men's pairs final also produced quality bowls, with Aucklander Justin Goodwin partnering Waikato veteran Kevin Robinson to a 19-11 win over Canterbury's Shayne Sincock and his West Coast lead Lance Pascoe.

The outstanding player in the match with his leading was Goodwin, a fact acknowledged by Robinson.

"There were three average bowlers out there and one very good one and I was lucky to be with the very good player," he said.

Robinson and Goodwin, having been part of the composite four Peter Belliss skipped to the national title this year, have developed into a strong pairs combination even though from different centres. This year they also won the Manurewa invitation pairs.

At 59 Robinson has long given up hope of becoming a national representative, but he believes Goodwin could still have an international future. But Goodwin, now 33, insists he is no longer interested in playing for New Zealand.