Bowls: Aussies bowling over NZ

SYDNEY - New Zealand's hopes of winning the annual transtasman bowls series suffered a heavy blow yesterday with Australia taking out five of the six tests on the opening day in Sydney.

Only the men's over-60 side, with 77-year-old Ivan Kostanich triumphant in his singles and then partnering John Fitzpatrick to victory in the pairs, managed to overcome their opponents.

The series is contested over three days at the St John's club and the advantage the hosts have already built could see the overall result decided by tomorrow.

New Zealand have lost the last two series, and men's manager Peter Kean admitted that salvaging this one would be difficult.

However, he remained confident New Zealand could lift their performance.

"I know we have the ability to do it," he said. "We're clearly the underdogs now. When you're in a corner there's only one thing you can do and that's to come out sparring."

Kean said many of the matches were close.

The men's development side and the over-60 women both lost their tests by shot differential after being tied with Australia at 2-all.

While the open men's side were whitewashed 4-0, their four were beaten by a single shot, while their triple were three shots up with two ends to play before succumbing 13-16. - NZPA