One of the new breed of lawn bowlers making deafening knocks on the door of the national selectors is Ray Martin (Victoria Bowling Club, Wellington).
Martin was in scintillating form over the weekend to progress to this morning's quarterfinal round as the top qualifier, the one undefeated player heading into post-section play.
Competing at the tournament for a fourth time, Martin came with a plan of at least going one better and making the final after being eliminated at the semifinal stage by world champion Shannon McIlroy last year.
Others to automatically qualify into post-section by finishing top of their respective groups are from a wave of young talent coming through the ranks — Sheldon Bagrie Howley (Gore), Keanu Darby (North East Valley) and Finbar McGuigan (Stokes Valley, Wellington).
Bagrie-Howley fell at the first hurdle on Friday when he went down to Blackjack Tony Grantham (Birkenhead, Auckland). But when Grantham lost to Joko Susilo (North East Valley), qualifying top in group two came down to a differential. Bagrie-Howley finished 30 points ahead of Grantham, who had to play a quarterfinal qualifier against fellow Blackjack Blake Signal (Stokes Valley, Wellington).
Signal made short work of Grantham in a 15-end demolition job, 25-5, for a quarterfinal matchup against Stokes Valley clubmate McGuigan this morning.
At the top of the draw Darby was undefeated in group one until the final round, when Brent McEwan (St Clair) ended his run, 25-12, but had done enough by that stage to progress to the quarterfinal stage automatically.
McEwan's win lifted him into the quarterfinal playoffs and a match with Susilo. After scores remained close for the greater part of the game, McEwan eventually pulled away to win 25-15 and will play the in-form Martin in the quarterfinals this morning.
At the bottom end of the draw McGuigan topped group four to progress automatically. His upset second-round loss to Sean O'Neill (Kia Toa, Timaru) stirred him into action and he scored a series of one-sided victories throughout the remainder of section play.
One to suffer a heavy 25-5 defeat at the hands of McGuigan was Blackjack Jamie Hill (Auckland).
Hill, finishing as second qualifier in the group, survived to fight another day in the qualifying round in which he played Roger Stevens (North East Valley), for a 25-19 victory and a quarterfinal match against Bagrie Howley.
The upset of the quarterfinal qualifying round came in the match between New Zealand high performance squad member Seamus Curtin (Stokes Valley), who was eliminated 25-24 by O'Neill.
O'Neill will play Darby this morning for the right to progress to the semifinals.
