Four from Dunedin in national top 10

Despite a weekend of mixed results in two tournaments of ranking singles at Bowls Dunedin Stadium, four players from the Dunedin region of the PBA are now firmly entrenched in the nationally ranked top 10.

Sheldon Bagrie-Howley cemented his No1 position, becoming the only player to emerge unbeaten, while Oliver Mason moved up one spot to No3.

Sheldon Bagrie-Howley.
Sheldon Bagrie-Howley.

Despite two early exits, Elliot Mason stayed locked in at No5.

But the big mover was Murray Wilson, who jumped from No11 to No6 and now has an outside chance of making the transtasman team.

With both ranking tournaments still to be completed at the semifinal and final stages on Finals Day in two weeks’ time, Bagrie-Howley will meet Sandy McNoe in one semifinal of the first tournament, and Cameron Cook in the semifinal of the second tournament.

Cook was one to give Bagrie-Howley an early round fright when play got under way in the first tournament, forcing a tie-break which Bagrie-Howley survived 2-0. Lisa Helmling and Peter Bell then also took advantage of a nervous start to the weekend by Bagrie-Howley, taking him to tie-break deciders in the second and third rounds.

After making his escape from these first three rounds, Bagrie-Howley then progressed through to the semifinal stage of the first ranking tournament with straight-set victories.

Bagrie-Howley then had a series of straight-set victories until the quarterfinal stage of the second ranking tournament on Sunday.

Drawn to play 2014 New Zealand international singles champion Duane White at the quarterfinal stage, Bagrie-Howley was forced to dig deep after White took out the first set 6-3 and then forced the pace in the second set. Bagrie-Howley then escaped with a big number on the final end to win 7-4 and force the tie-break that had the two players going shot-for-shot, Bagrie-Howley eventually winning 2-1 to progress.

"I sure made him work for it," White said of his quarterfinal.

Finals Day is shaping up to be full-on for Bagrie-Howley, as he is already down to play the semifinal of the World Pairs qualifier with Elliot Mason. Should results go his way he has the marathon prospect of playing three semifinals and three finals, all on the same day.

And should he be successful, it could be just as busy for him at the national finals early next month, having already won the Dunedin round of the UK Open Singles at Queen’s Birthday Weekend

Play over the weekend saw little respect being paid to reputations, with a number of top-ranked players being eliminated by players of a lesser standing. One such player was No5 ranked Mason, who was eliminated in the second round of both ranking tournaments.

Mason was eliminated in the first ranking tournament by the unseeded Miguel Rodriguez, who, along with Andrew Smaill and Cook brothers Cameron and Mitch, offered serious resistance throughout the weekend.

For Mason's twin brother, Oliver, fortunes were mixed. His success in reaching the semifinal stage of the first ranking singles tournament saw him move from a ranking of fourth to third. Then, despite progressing through the first two rounds of the second ranking singles with apparent ease, he was eliminated in the third round by Forbury Park club-mate Nigel Thompson 5-5, 6-4.

Thompson was another player to have been a constant threat throughout the weekend.