NORTH Albury bowler Norm Honey has qualified for the NSW senior singles championship playoffs.
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Honey won the Zone 8 (Riverina) singles title at Howlong last weekend to reach the final 16 in the state.
He will compete at Ettalong Bowling Club on October 26 and 27.
The Albury and District’s other representatives, Kim Maher and Ron Bonat, were beaten in their events.
Honey had an enthralling struggle with South West senior singles champion Geoff Holt (Young) on Saturday before finally winning 31-28.
His semi-final the following morning against Southern Slopes’ Ed Kelleher, from West Wyalong, went the same way, a 31-28 victory which put Honey into the final against Noel O’Brien (Wagga RAFC), who had defeated Tumut’s Graeme Rossiter 31-23 in the other semi-final.
Honey downed O’Brien 31-25 in the final.
Maher has had a superb season for Henty in pennant and was in fine touch in the open singles.
He defeated the Southern Highlands champion, the highly-rated Tim Crampton (Tumut RSL), 31-22 on Saturday, but found Wagga champion Brett White too consistent in a 31-26 semi-final loss.
Temora’s Bruce Lack had a runaway 31-6 win against Cliff Traynor (Young) in the other semi-final, but couldn’t reproduce the same form in the final, which White won comfortably 31-15.
Bonat, from Oaklands, looked likely to win his state president’s reserve singles preliminary round against David Townsend, from Hay.
But two ends towards the finish proved costly as he went down by the barest of margins, 31-30.
Townsend put the jack in the ditch with several ends remaining, but his bowl went out of bounds.
Bonat had about three metres to draw the shot, but his bowl was too heavy and he dropped three.
He was holding game on the second last end before Townsend drew the shot with his last bowl, and the Riverina District champion then claimed three on the last end to win.
It was the closest game for Townsend, who went on to win his semi-final 31-23 and the final 31-28.
The pairs championships in the three divisions will be played at Howlong on July 18 and 19.