Chestney digs deep to reach second round

It’s been 22 years since David Gourlay was last crowned the Just World Indoor Singles champion and he moved effortlessly into the second round at Potters with a comfortable 8-3, 10-2 win over fellow Scot John McCrorie.

The scoreline may look convincing, but it was far from a vintage performance by Gourlay, although he was rarely pushed by the Falkirk qualifier, an East Lothian clubmate of Alex Marshall, who was making his first-ever appearance in the event at 51 years of age.

The first set was relatively nip-and-tuck, but without Gourlay ever looking likely to relinquish control and he headed down the final end safe in the knowledge that only a full house would deprive him of taking a one-nil advantage into the second half of the match, which it didn’t.

Winning the first end of the second set should have given McCrorie a major boost, but the onslaught never came and his waywardness allowed Gourlay to pick off shots at will and after cruising into a 5-1 lead, that advantage soon turned into a 10-2 second set win, which clinched the match for the Scotland head coach.

He will now meet 12th seed Mark Dawes, who swept aside Hong Kong’s CY Wong with consummate ease, the Blackpool Newton Hall ace powering to a 12-4 12-1 victory.

Wong came through the choppy waters of the preliminary round-robin, topping a group that also contained World Indoor Bowls Council world champion Jarrad Breen, Canadian Gary Pickering, USA’s Charlie Herbert and Israeli Moti Polak, which saw him book his date with Dawes.

The occasion, though, seemed to overawe the 35-year-old interior designer and he provided little opposition for Dawes, who a day earlier had booked a place in the Open Pairs final with Jamie Chestney.

Chestney, meanwhile, had to dig deep to fend off the challenge of Chris Gale, a late replacement for the injured Danny Denison, despite breezing through the first set 10-1.

The second half of the match, though, was a much tighter affair with Gale, whose left knee was heavily strapped, beginning to finally exert some pressure on the Devonian.

A full house on end three put the Blackpool man in the driving seat and although Chestney clawed his way back to level the scores, Gale pushed on again to clinch the set 9-8 and take the match into a tie-break.

Needing to regain his composure in order not to become the first seed to tumble out, Chestney got back in the groove to win the first two ends and set up a mouthwatering second-round clash against 2014 champion Darren Burnett.