King and Kerkow too good for Jackson and Gourlay

Published on Monday 12 January 2009 09:12

THE 2006 champions Mervyn King and Kelvin Kerkow regained the Potters Holidays world pairs bowls title yesterday but had to work hard to beat Billy Jackson and David Gourlay 9-7, 8-8 before securing the title and the £10,000 prize purse.

The match looked to be heading for a best of three tie break with number 4 seeds and twice former champions Gourlay and Jackson leading 8-5 in the second set of the best of eleven end final, but a double saw King and Kerkow cut the deficit and with his opening bowl of the last end, King drew a front toucher that stayed in place until the end. It squared the set at 8-8 and was good enough to give them the title by one and a half sets to a half.

They won by a similar 9-6, 5-5 scoreline against Welshman Richard Morgan and England's Les Gillett in their semi-final while Gourlay and Jackson were also made to battle all the way against defending champions Ian Bond and Andy Thomson and finished strongly in both sets 8-4, 8-4.

Gourlay had no complaints afterwards. "It could have gone any way because both leads were brilliant, but Kelvin played some big conversion shots in the first set and that was the difference."

Three titles remain up for grabs at the Potters venue with the action this week centred on the second round of the principal singles event. Lothian interest continues on Wednesday when Alex Marshall will have to lift himself from a first round defeat in the pairs if he wants to go all the way to a record-extending sixth singles title in the final on January 25.