Bowls New Zealand (BNZ) has suspended national fours skipper
Gary Lawson and fined him and his teammates after they were
found guilty of throwing an end during an Asia-Pacific
championship match in Malaysia last August.
But Lawson told NZPA tonight he and his teammates intended to
appeal their punishments to the Sports Tribunal of New
Zealand.
"The matter should have been dealt with in Malaysia," he
said.
BNZ chairman John Carter last month confirmed the decision of
the judicial committee finding Lawson, Jamie Hill, Shane
Sincock and Shannon McIlroy deliberately lost an end at the
Kuala Lumpur tournament.
New Zealand, who had already qualified for post-section play,
led Thailand 15-12 in their last pool match before conceding
a four on the penultimate end and another shot on the last,
to lose 15-17.
To qualify for post section play, Canada needed to beat
Thailand in their final section play match, which followed
the New Zealand-Thailand match, but unexpectedly lost.
They then lodged a protest which Lawson said was informal,
but it got taken up to the world controlling body, who then
asked Bowls NZ to investigate the allegations.
The players were stood down from the national squad and lost
their high performance payments after it was determined the
allegations had to be heard by the judicial commission.
The punishments were announced today, but Bowls NZ did not
send a copy of its decision to NZPA.
Lawson told NZPA he had been fined $5000 and suspended for
six months, while his teammates had each been fined $1000 and
not suspended.
He said the penalty was "really irrelevant", and the four
were appealing .
"We're going to go there and we think we've got a really good
case to put up with the Sports Tribunal.
"We don't believe that Bowls New Zealand had the jurisdiction
to actually charge us in the first place.
"We've gone through, and our lawyers have gone through, the
constitution of World Bowls and we believe that it should
have been dealt with in Malaysia."
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