With the players on opposite sides of the draw, there is the potential for them to meet in the final later on that day.
Nicol will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Paul King (Andersons Bay) and transtasman representative Elliot Mason (Forbury Park), to be played at the Dunedin Lawn Bowls Stadium this Saturday.
Nicol took multiple scalps on his path to the semifinal stage, culminating with that of Dunedin sevens player Oliver Mason (Forbury Park) in the quarterfinal, 7-6, 6-5, at the weekend.
On the other side of the draw, McGregor notched up an impressive run of victories before beating Roger Stevens (North East Valley) in the quarterfinal.
Stevens won the first set 8-5, but McGregor responded to dominate the second set 9-4.
McGregor then won on a tie-break 2-0 to clip his ticket to the semifinals, where he will have the tricky task of playing Blackjacks squad member Sheldon Bagrie-Howley (Gore).
After coming through unscathed so far in singles competition, Bagrie-Howley and Elliot Mason, two rising stars of New Zealand lawn bowls, were hunted down and eliminated at the quarterfinal stage of the World Indoor Pairs competition on Sunday night by the composite pairing of Paul King (Andersons Bay) and Duane White (Forbury Park).
After losing the first set 8-5, Bagrie-Howley and Mason pulled it back to win the second set 9-5 and force a tie-break, only for form to elude them and be sent packing 2-0.
King and White were then eliminated in the semifinal by Russell Dawe (Kaikorai) and Ray Webster (Stadium) in an epic two-setter, 5-5, 9-4.
On the other side of the pairs draw, Para Bowls New Zealand high performance squad member Pam Walker (Omakau) was in sublime form playing second to Bruce McDowell (Taieri).
Walker and McDowell were ruthless in progressing through to the semifinal stage, recording some impressive results, mainly on the back of Walker’s ability to hone in on the jack draw and cover shots.
In a hard-fought semifinal against the composite pairing of Nick Buttar (Queenstown) and Oliver Mason, Walker and McDowell went down fighting.
They dropped the first set 9-7, but pulled it back to win the second 5-4 and force a tie-break, which Buttar and Mason won 2-0.
Buttar and Mason will play Dawe and Webster in the regional final on PBA finals day on August 22.
All winners of the regional finals then progress to the national finals to be played at the Dunedin Lawn Bowls Stadium in September.
