Following an action-packed day of post-section at the 2022 Summerset Nationals, the reigning men’s singles champion remains in the hunt to defend his silverware, while Val Smith and Lisa Prideaux have ended their pairs’ campaign at the hands of Johnsonville duo Dale Rayner and Kaaren Guildford, 17-12.
Though for Royal Oak’s Mike Galloway, a seemingly untroubled run through the knockout rounds has seen him take his place in Wednesday’s quarter-finals, with Galloway set to take on the well-performed Tauranga rep Nicholas Tomsett – a beaten semi-finalist in last year’s event.
Joining Galloway in the quarter-finals, former New Zealand representative Andrew Curtain rolled back the years to put a stop to the title ambitions of the promising Seamus Curtin, Curtain clawing back a 7-14 deficit and showing his wares with a 21-19 victory on the Burnside greens. Curtain will now play Burnside’s Barry Williams after Williams defeated Durie Hill hopeful Kaylin Huwyler, 21-16.
Other quarter-finalists include Tauranga South’s Eric Patillo, Canterbury representative Richard Hocking, 2007 singles champion Tony Grantham and another former singles champion, 1998 winner Kelvin Scott.
Meanwhile, as the weather continued to play its part throughout eight post-section venues in Christchurch, play moved through the scheduled stages and high-profile names began to fall. Bowing out of the competition in the round of 32 included New Zealand High Performance Squad members Raymond Martin, Finbar McGuigan and Gary Lawson, alongside former national champions Taylor Horn, Petar Sain, David Clark, Rob Ashton and Kerry Becks, among others.
In other results, sisters Mandy and Angela Boyd were defeated by composite duo Amy McIlroy and Selina Goddard, both high performance players continuing a good run of form through to the last eight – though the Natarsha Grimshaw and Hanna Rio de Silva composite proved too strong for them, edging a thrilling quarter-final encounter, 18-11.
Also advancing through to this year’s semi-finals will be the vastly experienced duo of Sandra Keith and Bev Morel, New Zealand High Performance pairing Clare Hendra and Tayla Bruce and home green heroes Kirsten Rowe and Emily Miller.
The men’s singles quarter-finals and women’s pairs semi-finals will get underway on Wednesday morning from 8.30am at the Burnside headquarters. All semi-finals and finals will be streamed via Sky Sport Next on YouTube.
In addition, the New Zealand Disabled Lawn Bowls Association Singles post-section commences on Wednesday, with nine competitors vying for the title, including the straight knockout rounds for the vision impaired singles disciplines (B1-B2 & B3-B4).
For a full run down of post-section results and to keep up to date with the latest fixtures, go to: