First to finish the first round of section play and bank valuable points towards post-section play was Bryan Harvey (Invercargill), with a solid 25-7 victory over Nick Buttar (Queenstown).
Both have been prominent in Dunedin Regional PBA competition in recent years, but yesterday Buttar had no answer to the unrelenting pressure he was put under, Harvey scoring three on the first end and taking just 17 ends to complete a first-round victory.
The win got Harvey off to the best possible start in group two of section play, in what is arguably a pool of death. But he came unstuck in the second round, going down to Joko Susilo (North Easst Valley) 25-14.
In a feature match in group two in the first round, Dunedin champion Oliver Mason also got away to a cracking start, with a cliff-hanger victory over world youth international Rory Soden 25-23.
It was a game in which Mason and Soden went hammer and tong at each other for a marathon 33 ends.
After holding a slender lead throughout the match, Mason was forced to sit on match point for five ends before he slipped a sensational bowl between the narrowest of gaps to secure shot and the match.
In the second round of this group, Soden took another hit, going down to 25-14 to Sheldon Bagrie-Howley, who overcame his first-round hiccup in which he succumbed to the skill of Blackjack Tony Grantham 25-16.
Grantham appears in ominous form after accounting for Mason in the second round 25-15.
But in another close encounter, also over an marathon 33 ends, Dunedin’s Brent McEwan could not get the same rub of the green.
McEwan was drawn to play Blackjack Blake Signal in the first round and appeared out for the count in the early stages as Signal powered away to hold an 18-8 lead in the race to score 25 after 19 ends.
McEwan pulled in some big numbers over the next three ends to close the game up and on the 32nd end both players were sitting on match point at 24-24. But the international experience of Signal came through under pressure as he secured the 33rd end to escape with a first-round 25-24 victory.
"Blake played a screamer on that last end and it was game, set and match," McEwan said.
Signal was somewhat relieved to have escaped with his first-round victory.
"I was just trying to score and hoping like hell," he said of McEwan clawing his way back into the match.
"That shot I sent down to win the match certainly got an earful. I think it was too terrified to fall short and do anything other than score for me."
McEwan carried his revival over into the second round when he claimed the scalp of the promising Caleb Hope (Stokes Valley) with a convincing 25-13 victory to keep his chances of post section play alive.
Signal went two from with a convincing victory over Central Otago champion Bill Clements.
Clements, a consistent post-section qualifier at this tournament in recent years, now needs several results to go his way in order to feature once again in post section.
On the other side of the draw, Blackjack Jamie Hill (Auckland) looks in super form with two convincing victories in group four.
In the first round he accounted for Sean O’Neill (Canterbury) 25-13 and then in the second Andy McLean (Taieri) 25-16.
Another to remain undefeated on Hill’s side of the draw was Seamus Curtin (Stokes Valley), who, like Hill, notched up two fine wins in group three.
His first, over Ricky Cook (Canterbury) 25-13, was followed by a 25-10 victory over 2009 champion and Blackjack Shaun Scott.
But the game of the second round proved to be the local derby between Roger Stevens (North East Valley) and Jonty Horwell (Kaikorai). The group three match went to to 32 ends in a 25-22 victory to Stevens.
Play resumes at 8.30 this morning for the start of the next three rounds of section play.
By Wayne Parsons
