Hong Kong top bowler Ken Chan’s quest of achieving a best-ever result for Hong Kong at the World Champion of Champions is well on course after winning three of the first four games.
Chan, who qualified for the world event back in October last year when he won the National Singles title, began his voyage at Burnside Bowling Club in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Monday, Nov 25. His aim is simple—to surpass the position of runners-up achieved by Hong Kong team-mate Stanley Lai last year.
He had a shaky start in the first game against Dennis Mijnhijmer from the Netherlands. Chan tied the first set 7:7, but eventually won the game by taking the second set 9:5.
In his second game Chan played against local player Shaun Scott under heavy rainfall. Again, the first set was tied at 9:9 so it all depended on the second set to decide the winner.
After the game was halted for a short period of time due to the weather, Chan was trailing 4:6 at the eighth end. However, his holding shot was taken out by Scott and lost a further two shots, making it almost impossible for Chan to overturn the deficit. Despite a late surge, Chan could only take two shots to lose the set 6:8.
Chan did not have many problems against Bernard Foo from Singapore in the third game – he won by a comfortable margin 12:2, 7:6.
Then Chan carried on with his good form to despatch Russell Marks from Spain in a tight game, which saw both players concentrating on drawing, the basic of the sport. It finished 10:3, 10:5 and lifted Chan into third position of the group.
If Chan maintains this position he will be in the play-off on Saturday.
In the women competition, Hong Kong representative Elisa Cheung also faced an uphill battle to qualification after losing the first three games.
Cheung lost to New Zealander Val McEldowney 5:8, 4:8 in the first game on Tuesday; lost to Carmen Andersen from Norfolk Island 7:11, 6:10 in the afternoon; and lost again to Lorna Smith of Scotland 2-14, 5-12 in the early evening.
Her chances of progressing to the play-offs are now very slim as she will need to face strong contestants such as Sally McAuley (Ireland) and Lucy Beere (Guernsey) in a later stage. Obviously Cheung needs to put in an extra effort and for luck to go her way to get through to the play-off stage.
The play-offs will be contested on Saturday. Both Finals will be fought out on Sunday. You may check the results of the competition at www.worldbowlsltd.com.
