Scott, the tournament’s 2009 champion, was one of only three players, also including Kevin Anderson (Scotland) and Mark Watt (Nelson Bays), to begin the penultimate game of section play undefeated.
Appearing as cool as a cucumber, and far from overawed with the reputation of his opponent, Scott piled on the pressure with some magnificent draw shots. It finally told on Wilson, as his drive deserted him in his attempts to clear the head.
Scott maintained his undefeated run with a solid 25-17 victory, and relegated Wilson to the sudden death post section round.
It proved a far from ideal start to the day in the penultimate round of section play for the Australians on the green, with fellow Australian international Scott Thulborn defeated 21-25 at the hands of Watt. Scottish international Kevin Anderson meanwhile maintained his clean card with a resounding 25-3 victory over Roger Stevens (Southland).
With local bowler Doug Thomas taking ill, Watt was first to gain automatic entry into quarterfinal stage, and avoid the sudden-death post section, as top qualifier in section 3.
In the final round of pool play in section 4, Scott had to claw his way back from 16-22 down in his match with Rory Soden (North Harbour) to win the match with his final bowl 25-23.
Despite dropping his final game of pool play in section 1, to Bill Clements (Central Otago) 14-25, Anderson joined Scott and Watt as automatic qualifiers to the quarterfinal stage, along with Commonwealth Games representative Mike Nagy, who qualified top of section 2.
The post-section sudden death stage offered up some classic encounters, with an all-Australian match up between the two internationals Wilson and Thulborn, who despite the cut-throat nature of the round, appeared to make the most of their knockout encounter with some good healthy competition. Despite the match going down to the wire, each took the opportunity to applaud scoring shots of the other. With the game locked up at 23-all on the 32nd end, it was the drive shot from Wilson on his final bowl that cleared the head of Thulborn’s three shot bowls and scored him the final two shots to clinch the match 25-23. Wilson will now progress through to face Nagy when quarterfinal play gets under way at 8.30am this morning.
Up-and-coming New Zealand bowler Seamus Curtin (Stokes Valley, Wellington) had little answer for the skill-set Canadian international Ryan Bester brought to their sudden death match, succumbing to the Commonwealth Games silver medallist 25-15 in 24 ends. Bester will now face Watt in the quarterfinal.
Curtin’s Stokes Valley clubmate Blake Signal (Nelson Bays) proved too strong for Andre Smith (Marlborough), winning 25-17 in a match that mirrored that between Curtin and Bester, and also taking 24 ends. Signal now needs to overcome the inform Anderson at the quarterfinal stage.
Caleb Hope (Gore) had no answer for the draw game of Bill Clements (Central Otago), and was eliminated 25-9 in just 18 ends. Clements now faces the daunting task of facing the undefeated Scott for a place in the semifinal.
Quarterfinal play begins at 8.30am this morning at the North East Valley greens. The semifinals follow at 11am, with the final at 2.15pm.
