One of the young guns in bowling, Aidan Lusby (Andersons Bay), gave notice he will be a force in the game in the future when he won the Otago regional qualifying round of the Welsh Masters at the bowls stadium yesterday.
Lusby (30), a sales representative with Yellow Pages, began the weekend's qualifying tournament ranked 39, and rated an 80-1 chance of qualifying.
However, he swept all before him to earn a place in the national final next month, accounting for the scalps of the tournament ranked Nos 1, 3, 6, 14 and 17 along the way.
In the preliminary rounds, he knocked out Andersons Bay clubmate Doug Thomas (17), Regan Larkin (6), of Kaikorai and Mark Watt (3), of North East Valley.
In the quarterfinal, he beat Russell Dawe (Port Chalmers) to meet 14th-ranked Duane White (Forbury Park) in the semifinal.
Lusby breezed through the first set 11-0, but succumbed 9-7 in the second.
He then steadied his nerves to clinch the match 2-0 in tiebreak for a place in the final against the top-ranked Ken Walker (Fairfield).
Walker had survived three frights in his path to the final, clinching a hard-fought victory in early rounds against Terry Perham (Mornington) 2-1 in tie-break, and also winning both his quarterfinal and semifinal matches in tie-breaks.
Lusby got away to an impressive lead on the first end of the first set, drawing three shots, and never looked threatened in the remaining seven ends to win 9-3.
In the second set, Lusby's nerves began to show and Walker's experience began to tell.
Walker took the set 11-5, with the game and regional representation going on the line in the tie-break.
Walker drew the shot with his first bowl, but Lusby managed to compose himself and knocked Walker's bowl away to draw two shots with his second bowl, which proved enough to clinch the first of three ends in tie-break.
It was much the same in the second end, when Walker initially went one up, but Lusby replied in kind with his final bowl, to clinch the second set and win the tiebreak 2-0 and claim a place in the national final.
"Oh, God, I can't believe it," he said of his victory.
"It's the biggest thing I've ever done in bowls and to do it playing Ken Walker for it, man ..."
Lusby admitted afterwards, as the prospect of his victory approached, he had trouble settling, with a "million thoughts" going through his head.
But the support of fiancee Phoebe and club-mates from the Andersons Bay club went a long way to contributing to his victory.
"There is no doubt, I was outplayed in this," Walker said of Lusby's victory.
"He was too good and he played well.
"There's no doubt he's broken through.
"This was his Everest."
