HONG KONG—The second Finals Day of the year this coming Sunday, Jan 25, 2015 will decide the Bowler of the Year (BOTY) for both genders.
The Finals Day at the Kowloon Bowling Green Club will kick off at 10.30 on Sunday morning, when the finals of the 2-4-2 Pairs and the Mixed Triples will be staged. The afternoon matches at 2:30 will decide the winners of the HKLBA National Pairs and National Triples.
Of all the finals, the main focus will be on the National Pairs which will directly decide who will be the Bowler of the Year.
In the men’s competition, Kevin Ho and Lui Chin Hong from Filipino Club will play against Kowloon Bowling Green Club’s Terence Lee and Wong Chun Yat. Currently Wong is leading the BOTY table with 25 points and Lui is at fifth with 20 points. As the winner of the final at the National Pairs will be awarded 10 points, whoever prevailed victorious at this final will be crowned Bowler of the Year.
Wong was the Bowler of the Year in 2012 and is looking forward to repeat his achievement this year. Lui is playing his first ever final in a major competition.
For the women, Vivian Yip will try her best to become the youngest Bowler of the Year in Hong Kong’s lawn bowls history. The 22-year-old Yip made history in 2011 to become the youngest winner of the Women’s National Indoor Singles and broke the same record at the National Champion of Champions Singles in 2014.
Yip, who is now playing for Hong Kong Football Club, will partner reigning National Indoor Singles champion Celena Kwok to play the National Pairs final against Club de Recreio’s Rita Tsui and Tammy Tham who, incidentally, are also HKFC members, but transferred to CdeR two seasons ago.
According to the BOTY chart, Dorothy Yu from HKFC is leading with 32 points, followed by Yip’s 23 points and Tsui’s 22 points. Should Yip take the Pairs trophy and the 10 points, she will leapfrog Yu to become the Bowler of the Year. If Tsui wins, she will be the joint winner of the BOTY with Yu.
However the disadvantage for Yip is that she needs to play two games on the day. In the morning she will partner with ex-Hong Kong International Camilla Leung to play in the 2-4-2 Pairs final. Leung also needs to play in the Triples final in the afternoon.
Interesting enough, the four players who were chasing the honour of BOTY have not yet won a single competition this year.
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
