Lawn bowls: Hill's class takes him through to pairs final

Neville Hill. Photo / Martin Sykes

Neville Hill, regarded by many of his peers as the most gifted bowler never to have won a national title, put himself in a position at the New Zealand Open at Henderson yesterday to finally achieve at 63 the next best thing.

Hill, nicknamed "Bones" because of his slender physique, skipped Rawhiti clubmate Mike Bradshaw, one of the tournament's surprise packets along with Birkenhead's Shane Gibson, into the final of the pairs. Hill and Bradshaw won yesterday's semifinal clash with Hinuera's Stu Settle and Bruce Milne and will now meet Gibson and his clubmate Rod Mahon in today's final.

Hill's main interest in recent years has been the career of his talented son Jamie, who he has half jokingly advised not to use himself as a role model. The elder Hill confesses that he has been a little too fond of a beer and a cigarette to have reached the heights he might have when he was at his peak in the late 1970s.

"Though I've never won a New Zealand title I've been third or fourth about 14 times," he said. "I played with Rowan Brassey but couldn't even win one with him. I did play for New Zealand in 1978-79 but suppose I drank too much grog."

Bradshaw, whose impressive tournament has also seen him make the singles final, appears to have much the same laid back approach and Hill confirmed their compatibility was one of the reasons they had done so well.

Gibson, who also made the singles semis, and Mahon, thanks to Mahon's inspired skipping, came from behind in their semi to oust a former national champion from Wellington, Rob Ashton, and his Auckland lead Barclay Lee.

Raika Gregory (Papakura) and Bradshaw, with wins respectively over Gibson and Chris Lourie (Waikato), will contest the men's singles final tomorrow.

The women's pairs final today will be between Pt Chevalier's Jenny Jones and Fay Yates and the youthful New Zealand selection Clare McCaul and Adele Greenfield. In yesterday's semifinals, Jones and Yates comfortably beat Onehunga's Reen Stratford and Raelene Castle and McCaul and Greenfield were equally dominant over Northland's Anne Bateman and Patricia Murray.

Another Auckland veteran, Grant Goodwin, with his Hillsboro clubmates Chris Lowe and Martin Dixon, made tomorrow's men's triples final holding off the fast finish of Gary Lawson's combination. Hillsboro will clash with the composite triple of Steve Beel, Lance Tasker and Tony Grantham, all of whom are former national champions.

Waikato's Annette Bell, Doreen Schumacher and Bev Corbett will defend the women's triples title in today's final against a composite lineup skipped by Canterbury's Jan Shirley.