Bowls: Taranaki pair world champs

Grant Hassall

Taranaki’s Briar Atkinson and Camron Horo are world champions.

The duo won the world indoor junior bowls mixed pairs in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland, in the early hours of Friday morning (NZT) and in doing so completed a tremendous championship that was many months in the making.

Both players excelled throughout the week, with Atkinson also taking a silver in the women’s singles and Horo a bronze in the men’s singles.

Horo, a man of few words felt that he had been “carried” by Atkinson but admitted to being “pretty stoked”.

Atkinson, was left a little disappointed after just missing out on the singles, but her achievements will sink in shortly.

While both players were selected by Bowls New Zealand for the event, they largely had to pay their own way and this was achieved through various fundraising efforts in Taranaki during the winter.

Atkinson and Horo gave the biggest thank you possible to the many who contributed with their glittering performances in Ireland.

They were ably managed by New Plymouth’s John Gray, a former Dominion fours winner, who provided the right blend of experience and enjoyment.

In the mixed pairs final, Atkinson and Horo beat Ireland’s Zoe Stratton and Daniel Spratt 7-2 9-0.

Atkinson’s accurate lead bowls gave the Kiwis the edge and Horo was able to convert and consolidate the ends into points.

Since the introduction of the mixed pairs to the event in 2004, it is the first time a New Zealand combination has triumphed.

The pairs involved 16 combinations and the Kiwis finished with six-straight wins.

In fact Atkinson’s only loss all week was in the singles final, where, somewhat unluckily, she went down to Ireland’s Lara Reany 2-6 3-4.

After conceding the first set, Atkinson dominated the play in the second.

But Reany was able to scramble, especially on the penultimate head, when she drew the shot with her last bowl when one down on the board and three down on the head. Atkinson had beaten Reany in section play on a tiebreaker.

Horo, after sneaking into the quarterfinals following three wins and two losses, was nosed out in the men’s singles semifinals 7-3 3-8 1-4 by classy Australian Joseph Clarke, the eventual champion.

They went into the last end of the tiebreaker at 1-1 and Horo slid by on the wide side with his attempts at trailing the jack.

Atkinson showed early promise at Lepperton after her late grandfather, Danny Watt, introduced her to bowls.

That talent has developed significantly now, as she divides her club bowls between Paritutu and Oakura.

A full international player, Atkinson took part in the trans-Tasman last season and is unquestionably one of the finest players in the world today.

It was former NZ coach John Murtagh who said after seeing Atkinson as a 15-year-old: “I have seen the second coming of Jo Edwards.” How true Murtagh was.

It has been a remarkable rise for Horo, an apprentice plumber from Rahotu.

He appears set for a big haul of Taranaki titles in the years ahead. But as illustrated by his victory with Paritutu in the NZ interclub in April and his outstanding showing this past week, surely his goals must have risen.

He has every chance of also becoming a full international – and a very good one at that.