Results Report – Open Ivan Kostanich Mens Singles – 21 & 22 Septmeber 2024
Brian Wilson, now with Birkenhead, at the weekend, ended a frustrating run of near misses in singles championships by brilliantly winning the Ivan Kostanich open singles title and in so doing conjured up some of the magic of the master bowler after whom this event is named. Wilson has three times been runner-up in centre championship or champion of champion singles and two years ago was the beaten finalist in this event. But in finally breaking that drought Wilson was in superb touch, beating Adam Haywood, back living in the Thames Valley centre but playing at the weekend in the colours of the Auckland club.
Haywood is an accomplished bowler as he showed a few seasons ago when with Browns Bay he quickly gained a centre gold star. So a measure of how impressive was Wilson’s feat in overpowering him in the final could be gained from the fact that Wilson needed just seven of the scheduled nine ends to win the first set 11-2 and again only another seven sets to win the second and the match. Outplayed by Wilson’s immaculate draw bowls, Haywood was forced to resort to driving, but on the skiddy Takapuna carpet these invariably proved futile.
Seldom in a North Harbour major event has anyone been quite as dominant as Wilson was over this tournament’s two days. In his seven matches he only dropped the one set and his biggest test came in the semi-final against the hard driving youngster from Auckland’s Te Atatu club with the physique of an All Black prop, Adam Blucher.
In an absorbing battle they shared the first set 7-all and Wilson only won when Blucher, with a thundering drive on the last end of the second set was left holding what seemed to be three crucial shots. But Wilson, with his last bowl, calmly drew through the cluster of three, to win the set and the match.
Wilson showed a single-minded, focused approach from his first very first section match against representative selector, and vastly experienced bowler with gold stars in Auckland and North Harbour, Grant Goodwin whom he beat two sets to love. Perhaps Wilson was intent on making a point for so far in representative selections he has only made the development squad.
Wilson, 59, a native of Durban, South African, and from a community disadvantaged by the old apartheid system, began bowling at the old Takapuna RSA, soon after moving to Takapuna where in 2008-09 while still a junior he won his first centre title playing in a four skipped by Chris Taylor.
Since then he has gained his gold star, notably in a formidable Browns Bay four alongside players of the calibre of Neil Fisher, John Walker and Colin Rogan. A perception may have arisen that he was the junior in that illustrious line-up. But at the weekend he showed he has developed into a superb singles player in his own right with an all-round game. Not only did he outdraw Haywood, but on the few occasions when he had to drive he was also the more accurate.
In the semi-finals Haywood beat Warkworth’s Guy Robson, but the latter who is not long out of junior ranks could be delighted with his effort, particularly in winning his post-section matches against two of the centre’s most promising bowlers, Orewa’s Allan McQuoid and Manly’s Matt Higginson.
Across the Harbour Bridge in the Auckland women’s open singles Elaine McClintock was the centre’s only player who qualified for post-section play. She lost in the quarter-finals to Aucklander Kimberley Hemingway, who lost the final to Tairua’s Jessie Macaw. Takapuna’s Adele Ineson, who won this event last year, won her section but lost in the post-section play-off match.
