After making history in 2011 to become the youngest winner of the Women’s National Indoor Singles, 21-year-old university student Vivian Yip made history again last weekend by becoming the youngest woman to win the National Champion of Champions Singles.
Yip, who qualified for the competition as the winner of the U25 Singles, played her first-ever Champion of Champions’ competition – which is restricted to the current holders of the singles champions of the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association (National Singles, Knockout Singles, Under 25 Singles, Champion of Champions singles) as well as the singles champions of all member clubs.
Yip, a member of the Hong Kong Youth Team who has represented Hong Kong at international level, won all games in the double round-robin stage and proceeded to Saturday’s (April 12) Final to face Hong Kong international Emmie Wong from the Hong Kong Football Club.
Despite starting quite well, winning two shots in the first end, Yip lost the tightly-competed first set 8:7.
“I should have at least tied the set with my last bowl,” said Yip after the game. “I was holding a shot and if I drew my last bowl to the head, I could have won two shots to tie the set. But it hit my other bowl in front and didn’t come close.”
Despite being under pressure to take the second set to force the game into a tie-breaker, Yip maintain her calmness and display high consistence in drawing.
Yip picked up a three in the first end and quickly opened up a gap of six shots after just three ends. She went on the won the set 12:2, taking the match into a tie-breaker along with confidence building momentum.
After the first two ends in the tie-breaker the score was tied at 1:1. A crucial moment in the Final came in the next end, Yip was down a shot with only her the last bowl to play. She held her nerve and played a perfectly heavy shot to push the jack into the ditch to hold a shot. Wong tried to draw the winner, but was a bit heavy and fell into the ditch.
Yip was obviously delighted about winning the title in her first attempt and attributes her success to the Hong Kong team training camp she attended earlier this year.
“The training taught me how to handle pressure better and this is critical in situations like today. What happened in the first set did not demoralise me and I just kept cool.
“I used to easily get nervous in adverse situations, but now I have more confident in handling such pressure. Staying calm allows me to focus on the game and maintain consistency in my drawing,” Yip said.
Mens’ CoC Singles
In the Men’s Champion of Champions Final, PT Lee from China Light & Power won his first major title by beating the defending champion Wong Chun Yat 1.5-0.5 (6:6, 10:1).
This year the competition employed a new format, which started with double round-robin. The two group winners of the second round-robin went directly into the Final. The game format was also changed from straight score to set play.
National 2-4-2 Pairs
The Final of the National 2-4-2 Pairs was also played on the same day.
In the Men’s competition, Stephen Sy and Kevin Ho from Filipino Club defeated Alex Ng and Yau Ka Kwong from The Association of H.K. Yunnan Fellow Provincials 15:12 to win the title.
Kowloon Cricket Club’s Mercredi Yeung and Sonia Chan came from behind to beat Tiffany Law and Anna Chan of Seabird Sports Club 19:18 to take the Women’s trophy.
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
