Veteran and past national champion Ken Walker proved there was plenty of life in the old dog yet when he progressed through to the final of the UK Open Singles.
Walker (77) was in sublime form, showing touches of the old master with straight-set victories in all his matches.
Walker will meet Southland champion Bryan Harvey in the decider on Finals Day on August 20.
Unlike Walker, Harvey stumbled somewhat on his journey, securing a finals berth with a string of tie-breaks, as he progressed through on the other side of the draw.
A nervous start meant he dropped the first set of the day against David Natta 10-4, but he bounced back in the second to reverse the scoreline in his favour and force a tie-break which he won 2-1.
Staying alive in the competition did not get any easier for Harvey in his second-round game against Queenstown’s Nick Buttar in a match that ebbed and flowed before Harvey progressed 2-0 on tie-break.
Harvey’s progress to the final resulted in another epic encounter against Ross Brown in the semifinals.
Dropping the first set 0-10, Harvey survived to win a closely fought second set 9-7 and force the tie-break, which he won 2-0 for a place in the final.
It had been an inauspicious start to the weekend for Bagrie-Howley, who on Friday evening was eliminated in the first round of the fast and furious Shanghai Singles by Tommy McGregor 26-17 and Grant Simpson 31-26. Simpson progressed to the semifinals when he was eliminated by Buttar 31-17.
Buttar then defeated Gareth Seddon 31-27 and Brent McEwan 31-21 in the final to retain the title he won last year.
But in the final act of the weekend, Bagrie-Howley (27) won the region’s Scottish Singles with a performance straight out of the top drawer.
Showing little respect for his opponents at the top end of the draw he went through the competition without dropping a set. His only test came in the second set of the final in which he met Central Otago’s Ethan Flynn (29) in a battle of the next generation of representative bowlers .
After Bagrie-Howley won the first set 11-4, Flynn hit back with some strong draw play that forced Bagrie-Howley on the drive and to play deep only preventing the set going to a tie-break when he drew shot with his final bowl to lock the set up at 9-9.
But there is consolation for Flynn, as when the national final is in Invercargill in September, Bagrie-Howley will be on the Gold Coast playing for the Black Jacks at the World Championship of Bowls and will be unavailable to play in the national final.
As runner-up, Flynn is automatically promoted to contest the national final of the Scottish Singles with an opportunity beckoning should he win that to contest the world final later in the year.
Regional champion in the Scottish Singles last year, Murray Wilson failed to make it past the second round of both the Scottish and UK events.
