HONG KONG—For the second year in a row, two new names were added to the HKLBA National Indoor Singles trophies after Kevin Fung and Dorothy Yu made their mark at the final last Saturday, Jul 11 at the indoor green of Craigengower Cricket Club.
Fung, whose previous best results at the competition was a losing finalist back in 2002, faced five time champion Danny Ho in the final, after dispatched Hong Kong international Li Ming Sum in the semi-final.
Ho started the game well, picked up the green and the pace immediately after the kick-off. His superb drawing got him a lead of 6:0 after just four ends and he cruised through the rest the first set.
The second set was much tighter when Fung started to improve but it was Ho who made two errors and contributed to his own downfall.
The first mistake was in the fourth end when the game was tied at 2:2. Ho drew a super shot which was a toucher in front of the jack which made it difficult for Fung to draw a shot bowl. But Ho’s second bowl was a little bit heavy and pushed aside his shot bowl and opened up a gap for Fung to see the jack. Fung took the chance and moved the jack to win two in this end.
The second error was in the seventh end when the game was again tied at 5:5. Ho was holding three shots but never thought of protecting the head with his fourth bowl. His last bowl was drawn jack-level and counted as a shot. Fung, who has a bowl at the back, took a risky shot to aim at the bare jack. His gamble paid off with the jack pushed into the ditch and he again won two shots.
This shot boosted Fung’s morale and he won the set 8:6 to push the game into a tie-break.
In the three ends tie-breaker Fung started to display outstanding drawing power and took all three ends to become the champion.
Fung said that he is very lucky to win the competition, “My draw in the tournament was very favourable to me as I played all games at home. I was not particularly playing well in the final but my gamble in that end did pay off.”
He also thought that the key to his success is the never-give-up mentality, “Danny was playing really well in the beginning and I need to try my best to get close to him in the second set. It is the insistence that kept me in the game and helped me prevail.”
Another factor for his good performance is the regular training required by the Sports Aid Grant program from the Hong Kong Sports Institute, “I have trained more under the program and this has helped me improved on skill and consistency. Now I have proved my capability on fast greens locally so the next step will be evaluating what I can do at international level.”
Ladies
In the ladies competition, the reigning Bowler of the Year Dorothy Yu from Hong Kong Football Club played 2008 champion Queenie Lai in the final.
Yu dominated the first set by winning 11:1 but Lai crawled back in the second set to win 9:6 to force the game into tie-break. In the tie-breaker it was all Yu as she won seven shots to lift the title.
Yu believes that it was the insistence that helped her to win the game, “I played really well in the first set but lost some focus in the second one, probably because of a drop in stamina. So I needed to concentrate again and do it bit by bit, following my own pace and I am glad that it worked out fine.”
Similar to Fung, Yu also thought that the favourable draw was also key to her achievement, “I had a lot of home games and even when I was drawn away, my opponent was also from Football Club so it was like I am still playing at home. I only played away from home once so it was easier for me to adapt.”
Claudius Lam is an Officer of the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
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