Mastery of tie breaks key for Harvey

Brian Harvey
Brian Harvey
Invercargill's Brian Harvey won a final for the ages when he overcame crowd favourite Ross Stevens (St Clair) in a tiebreak to win the Henselite PBA Ranking Singles at the Dunedin Bowls Stadium on Monday night.

Stevens proved the master of the tiebreak situation as only in his semifinal against Dave Robinson (Taieri) did he avoid having to contest one on his path to the title.

Harvey faltered only in his first round-match against Doug Thomas (North East Valley), going down in a hard-fought first set 6-4 but dominated the second set 11-4 and won the tiebreak 2-0.

From then on it was all plain sailing for Harvey, as he dominated with magnificent draw shots and traffic around the head.

In the final, Stevens was right on the money with a toucher on his first bowl. Harvey replied in kind and the scene was set for an epic shot-for-shot encounter

Harvey broke the deadlock by scoring two shots on each of the final two ends to take the first set 8-3.

Stevens bounced back with a vengeance, leaping out to a 7-0 lead after just four ends of the second set.

Harvey drew some magnificent shots to claw his way back, but Stevens was able to reply and lock him out with some deft touches to win the second set 8-6 and force a tiebreak.

Harvey clinched the first set and crowded the jack in the second to win the tiebreak 2-0 and take the title back to Invercargill.

''I sort of put myself under pressure in that second set and lost my way,'' Harvey said.

''Things could have gone either way in the tiebreak and I was just lucky, I guess.''

''Good luck to Brian,'' Stevens said.

''He played very well. It was a game of two halves and things changed so much.''

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