It was a performance for the ages but the final hurdles proved bridges too far when Russell Dawe ended a 12-hour stint on the rinks on finals day at the Bowls Dunedin Stadium on Sunday.
A representative of the Kaikorai club, Dawe qualified two weeks ago for the PBA Dunedin regional semifinals of the World Indoor Singles, World Indoor Pairs (with Ray Webster) and both ranking single competitions.
On Sunday, he made the final in all four.
Because of Dawe’s impressive performance and time constraints, the final of the ranking singles double header will now be played on September 2 at the Bowls Dunedin Stadium.
Dawe began his epic day at 8.20am with the semifinal of the first ranking singles competition, wasting little time in eliminating Brent Webster 9-2, 7-6 to clip his ticket to the final.
In his second semifinal, Dawe appeared unstoppable when taking the first set against Peter Fleury 11-1, only for his Midas touch to elude him in the second set when Fleury bounced back to win 9-4 to force a tie-break, which Dawe won 2-1 to progress to the final.
In the final of the first ranking singles, Dawe will play Brent McEwan, while in the second match he faces the task of playing top-10 ranked Oliver Mason.
Dawe has proven in recent weeks that reputations count for little, and in his third match on Sunday, he sent another top-10 ranked player in Murray Wilson to the sideline, winning the World Indoor Singles semifinal 7-5, 13-1, 2-0.
Dawe and Webster then ended the run of the higher-ranked Niel Louw and Ethan Flynn at the semifinal stage of the World Indoor Pairs.
Having gone four games deep, and spent almost nine hours on the green, a weary Dawe stumbled in the finals of both the world pairs and singles.
He and Webster were beaten in the pairs by Andy McLean and Brent McEwan, 5-7, 9-2, 2-0, after McEwan opted for shorter ends.
That had an effect on Dawe’s ability to draw in on the jack, and he was still searching for his line and length in the final of the singles against Marty Kreft.
Kreft appeared in sublime form in the final of the World Singles, denying Dawe a spot in the national final 11-2, 8-3.
The day still belonged to Dawe, who returned to the players’ lounge to rousing applause.
"As soon as I stop, I’ll probably seize up," Dawe said.
"I’ll get home and probably go to sleep watching the final of the soccer."
Kreft, a past regional champion in the world singles, was full of praise for Dawe.
"He’s a great competitor and no-one can take Russell lightly. He’s always there or thereabouts."
In the solitary game that did not feature Dawe, Bryan Harvey beat Ken Walker in the final of the UK Open Singles 7-5, 9-4.
