BRIAN Hawkins produced a brave display last weekend in Blackpool but missed out on securing a tourcard onto the World Bowls Tour, writes DAVE EATON.
The Clarrie Dunbar proprietor and manager reached the finals of the Co-operative Funeralcare European Masters shoot-out in Blackpool Newton Hall after winning a qualifying tournament at Dolphin IBC (Poole).
Sixteen players qualified for Blackpool and were divided into two groups of eight with the winner of each group being awarded a coveted Tour card and entry into all of the World Bowls Tour ranking events.
Hawkins won his first group match convincingly beating Neil Smith (Swindon Westlecot) 2-0 in sets but lost out in the semi-finals to U25 England international Connor Cinato (Kingsthorpe, Northampton) on a tie breaker after drawing 1-1 in sets.
Clarrie Dunbar’s Hawkins opened in blistering form against Smith in his opening last eight match and stormed to the first set 9-2.
In the second set Westlecot’s Smith upped his game to go 6-1 up and then Hawkins found himself 7-2 down going into the seventh end and heading for a tie breaker.
But the Dunbar player composed himself to produce a remarkable fightback to score eight shots without reply, take the second set 10-7 and the match to set up a semi-final against youngster Connor Cinato.
In the first of the semi-finals a defiant Hawkins took young England international Cinato to the first tie-breaker of the tournament.
Hawkins trailed 4-0 after three ends of the first set but hit back on the fourth to cut the gap to 4-3. They then swapped counts of three to take the score to 7-6 before singles on ends seven and eight took the score to 8-7 in Cinato’s favour.
However, Hawkins took a double on the last to close out the set 9-8.
In the second set the two players were tied four-all after five ends but then Hawkins seemed to lose his weight and did not score another shot and lost the set 9-4 sending the match into a tie breaker.
Cinato now in confident form drew to the jack with inch perfect woods to take the first two ends and the match 2-1 (8-9, 9-4, 2-0).
However, Cinato lost in the final to Billy Jackson (Lincoln) 2-1 despite winning the first set 9-4, he lost the second 11-3 and tie breaker 2-1.
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