Ken Chan and Tammy Tham, the defending champion of the Men’s National Singles and Women’s National Indoor Singles respectively, succeed in retaining their titles in two separate finals last week.
Men’s National Singles
After a waiting of more than two months, Hong Kong top bowler Ken Chan finally defeated Jimmy Chiu in the Men’s National singles last Sunday Sept 15.
The match, which started back in July 7, was interrupted by heavy rainstorm mid-way through. It was originally postponed until August but, because Chiu was unable to play due suffering a serious illness, it was twice postponed until last Sunday.
The Men’s National Singles resumed from the 12th end with Chan leading Chiu, his club-mate at Kowloon Cricket Club, 10:7. Chiu, who is still recovering from dengue fever that he contracted back in early August, was obviously struggling with lack of form and did not manage the green well. He lost five shots in the first two resumed ends to allow Chan to edge closer to the finishing line.
Despite showing his fighting spirit by winning the following three ends to close the gap to three points, it proved that this was the best Chiu could do. Chan took two shots each from the following three ends, while Chiu could only manger to get a single shot. The resumed game lasted only 45 minutes with Chan prevailing in a 21:13 victory.
As usual, Chan attributed his success to religious power.
“Due to work commitments I did not put in a lot of effort in training and it did affect my form a bit,” said Chan.
“However my religious belief helps me to relax during the course of a game and it is really useful in a mind game such as lawn bowls.
“I learned not to focus too much on the result, but to just perform my best.
“Today Chiu is not playing too well because of his illness, so thank God I won it,” said a delighted Chan.
With Ken winning the singles title, the Chan family also made history. It was the first time that a mother and son has won National Singles titles in the same season. Earlier, at the resumed Finals Day in August, Ken’s mother Anna won the women’s singles title by defeating KCC’s Elizabeth Cormack.
Women’s National Indoor Singles
Last Friday evening (Sept 14) top Hong Kong indoor bowler Tammy Tham won her forth title in five years by beating club-mate Candy Ng from Club de Recreio in the Final.
Tham, who switched from Hong Kong Football Club to CdeR this season, returned to the HKFC indoor green for the Semi-finals and Final. She defeated Cindy Lau, from Kowloon Bowling Green Club, with minor effort in the Semi-final to set up a showdown with Candy Ng in the Final.
“Despite the fact that Candy is a less experienced bowler, I did not underestimate her because she has been doing well to reach this stage,” said Tham.
And she stood by her words to stay focussed throughout – taking five shots in the first two ends to force Ng into a passive position. The first set eventually ended 11:4 in Tham’s favour.
Ng tried to fight back in the second set and led Tham 2:1 after three ends. But this was the furthest Ng could go losing 10 shots in the following four ends and settled for runners-up.
Tham feels that she was relaxed throughout the game and this helped her to perform at her normal high standard, which is usually good enough to win on most occasions.
“Drawing is an important element of the game and today I just kept my concentration and displayed my usual drawing standard,” said Tham, who is usually quite consistent.
I am glad I won it again,” she concluded.
Ng admitted that a lack of experience cost her the game.
“At the beginning I cannot find the right green [curve] and it is always difficult to chase a game,” explained NG.
“Sometimes I am a bit hesitant to play some risky shots because so many experienced bowlers are watching. But this is a good experience and I have learned a lot from it.”
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
