Five Ends Cost Youngsters First Lawn Bowls Title

A lapse in concentration ended in disappointment for a trio of young bowlers on the weekend. It took only five ends for the girls representing the Hong Kong Youth Team to end their dream of winning the first major National competition title for the team.
Five Ends Cost Youngsters First Lawn Bowls Title
Champions ... (From left) Women’s Singles champion Anna Chan and National Triples winners Rita Tong, Janet Ferreira and Celena Kwok from Club de Recreio proudly display their trophies after hard-fought victories in the finals. (Stephanie Worth)
8/14/2013
Updated:
8/14/2013

A lapse in concentration ended in disappointment for a trio of young bowlers on the weekend. It took only five ends for the girls representing the Hong Kong Youth Team to end their dream of winning the first major National competition title for the team.

The trio of Monica Ho, Andrea Chan and Vivian Yip continued their postponed National Triples finals against Rita Tong, Janet Ferreira and Celena Kwok from Club de Recreio (CdeR) last Saturday Aug 10 at Craigengower Cricket Club.

The game was originally scheduled for July 7, but was interrupted by rainstorm halfway through. The girls lead their opponents 7:3 entering the break.

In the resumed match, CdeR quickly took control and won three shots each in the first three ends to lead by 12:7. However, on the ninth end, the three youngsters demonstrated the highest level of drawing skill to win a seven.

The girls started dominating the game and opened up a lead of five shots with only five ends to go. As the lead was built, apparently complacency also grew within the team as the girls started to joke with each other and played in a relaxed mood.

From this point on it was all downhill for the girls. They lost the following five ends, lost 12 shots on the way and conceded the trophy to CdeR.

Youth team skipper Yip blames the loss in part on the tactics of her opponents.

“They played really slowly and this broke our rhythm,” said Yip after the match. “We played quite well in the earlier part, but lost focus soon after they started to play slowly.

“The critical point was at the 14th end, when their skipper successfully moved the jack and took four shots. This allowed them to take the jack [control the distance of the head from the mat] and get back in the game,” said Yip.

Conversely, CdeR skipper Kwok attributed their success to their calmness during the game.

“Actually both teams did well in the match,” said Kwok.

“In the middle of the game we were in adversity, but the whole team kept patience and focused on drawing close to the jack. This allowed us to claw back gradually into the game and it coincided with their drop of form. We took the opportunity and won it.”

National Singles

In the Final of the Women’s National Singles, Anna Chan from Kowloon Bowling Green Club continued her lead from the interrupted match to beat Elizabeth Cormack 21:17 to clinch her first National Singles title under HKLBA.

Entering the resumed game, Chan was holding a lead of three shots and this edge was enlarged to 18:9 after nine ends. And then the scare came when Cormack won four consecutive ends to cut Chan’s lead to one single shot.

“Somehow I got confused midway through the match. As a dedicated Christian, I believed that God has made all arrangement for myself so I began to question whether it is necessary to try so hard for this. This feeling distracted me from my normal touch,” said Chan.

“After I lost the four ends it became clear that I still need to work it out by myself, no matter what God has arranged for you. So I picked up and focussed again.”

Chan took the next two ends to finish the game 21:17.

The Men’s Final, which features Chan’s son Ken, was again postponed due to the sickness of the other finalist Jimmy Chiu. The match will be played this coming Sunday, Aug 18, at Craigengower Cricket Club.

Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.