Le Ber has good chance of qualifying

A HAPPY Matt Le Ber looked at his group league table in the World Bowls Champion of Champions singles event at the Burnside club in Christchurch today and liked what he saw.

'I'm not at the top of the table, but I've had my two byes, and have lost only once in six matches,' he said. 'That means if I can do well in the rest of my matches, I am in with a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stage.'

In fact, Le Ber has a hard match tomorrow morning when he meets the 2012 England champion Tom Bishop, from Southampton, before facing Spain's Russell Marks after lunch.

This morning, he scored an emphatic 9-3, 7-4 straight sets win over Singapore's Bernard Foo and followed that up with an exciting tiebreak victory over Raymond Sher, beating the Israeli, 10-4, 3-10, 3-2.

In his third game of the day, Le Ber faced China's Jacky Wong, who has been a top player in Hong Kong for twenty years, and again came out on top, 5-8, 11-1, 2-1.

Lucy Beere took to the green this morning hoping to break her duck and did reasonably well against Scottish and British champion Lorna Smith, who has been in brilliant form, and who eased home in straight sets, 7-4, 10-5.

But Beere was delighted to notch up her first win before lunch, when she defeated Cyprus champion Christine Lacy, 9-4, 10-4.

She later came close to beating Lebo Mascarenhas, but the Botswanan emerged a 5-7, 8-6, 3-1 winner.