Tasmanian meat worker Chris Dudman led from the front to put Australia in a commanding position in the transtasman indoor bowls test at Balclutha yesterday.
Australia leads New Zealand 27-19 after two days and has a firm grip on the Henselite Trophy, contested every two years.
Australia had another successful day in front of a crowd of 200 at the Balclutha Memorial Hall and dominated with five wins. New Zealand won three games and two were drawn.
Dudman (44), the Australian captain, is playing in the event for the eighth time and used his experience to win two games.
He turned the tables on Grant l'Ami, who had beaten him in the singles on the first day, with a 24-20 win and later was the anchor in the winning mens triples team.
The team of Chris Dudman, David Speechley, Terry Hogan beat New Zealand's Blair Spicer, Grant Rayner and Mike Phipps 22-15.
"I couldn't close Grant out yesterday," Dudman told the Otago Daily Times.
"But I was more positive today."
The scores were level 17-17 after 21 of the 25 ends. but the next end proved fatal to l'Ami.
He killed the jack and conceded three penalty shots and then dropped a three for Dudman to score six on the end.
This system has been introduced to the international game to break deadlocks that used to occur when players killed the ends.
L'Ami had two shots on the head when Dudman played his last bowl and moved the jack sideways for three shots.
Dudman won his fifth transtasman title in the triples and has the chance of collecting another gold medal if he can beat l'Ami in the third singles game today.
L'Ami and his partner Ashley Diamond, from Canterbury, had a convincing 22-10 win in the men's pair against Tony Simpson and Arthur Finch (Australia). It was l'Ami's sixth Australasian title.
Lisa White (29), of Upper Hutt, kept New Zealand's hopes alive when she drew the women's singles 15-all with Monika Korn (Australia).
She played inspired bowls to recover from a 15-9 deficit after 20 ends to score a two and four singles to draw 15-15.
White held two shots on the last end but Korn drew second shot with her last bowl to tie the match.
"I put in a block and couldn't see how she could get in to stop me," White said.
Korn decided to go for the draw and drew around the front bowl with her forehand draw for second shot.
"It was a miracle shot," Korn admitted.
"I need a stiff drink after that."
White later combined with Fiona Wilson of Tauranga in the women's pairs against Korn and Julie Zaporozec to win another close game 19-18.
Australia also came from behind to win both the men's and women's fours. In the men's fours they scored two shots on the final end to win 14-13 and in the women's fours they trailed 13-16 with two ends to play. They scored a four on the penultimate end and then a single on the last end.
Today is the final day of the transtasman event.
