[2/7/2019] Hong Kong Squad – 2019 Asia Pacific Championships Updated

The Hong Kong lawn bowls team competing in the Asia Pacific Championships in Broadbeach, Australia were celebrating another medal yesterday with Tony Cheung securing a bronze medal in the Men’s singles after being knocked out by his nemesis and World No.1 Shannon Mcilroy of New Zealand.

Tony finished second to him in last year’s world Champion of Champions event and unfortunately history repeated itself yesterday as Mcilroy put on a clinical display in the semi-final, winning 21-11.
Tony had won through to the semi final with 7 wins out of 8 in the sectional matches, only losing to Shannon Mcilroy, and then played really well to defeat Rais of Malaysia 21-12 in the play-offs to secure his bronze medal.

The Men’s fours team of Imen Tang, Adrian Yau, Lyndon Sham and James Po had an incredible week. They won 7 out of 9 of their sectional games to finish third in their group and were drawn against Canada in the play offs. As the Canadian skip lined up his last bowl in the 15th and final end, Hong Kong were leading 13-10 on the scoreboard and were 3 up in the head. The heavy shot scrambled the head with the worst possible outcome. The shot count was reversed and scores tied at 13-13 and an extra end required. Unfortunately Canada prevailed by one shot in the 16th end so reminiscent of the brilliant performance by our Women’s fours team last week against New Zealand.

The Women’s triples team of Cheryl Chan, Phyllis Wong and Angel So had a difficult week against some really tough opposition and unfortunately the 4 wins and 4 losses could only see them finish in 4th place in their group and miss out on a play off berth. However the Women’s pairs team of Gloria Ha and Helen Cheung notched up 5 wins to secure 2nd place in their group but were unlucky to get the powerful New Zealand pair in the play offs and went down 19-11 in a gritty display.

A really strong performance by the Hong Kong team in these Championships and again the results this week mean that all eight disciplines now qualify to compete in next year’s World Bowls Championships to be held between May 23rd and June 7th at the same venue on the Gold Coast of Australia.