KEY POINTS:
The benefit of spending three months training in Christchurch was readily apparent as the Australian men and women whitewashed their New Zealand counterparts 4-0 in the first test of the transtasman series yesterday.
The Australians have spent a quarter of 2007 playing on the Burnside greens in Christchurch in readiness for next month's world championships there.
It paid off yesterday with a dominant performance in the first of three tests there.
"Part of our preparation for this event and World Bowls, is to get as much time as we can on these greens, because they are a lot different from the ones at home," Australian star Aron Sherriff said.
"We always try to get as much time as we can at the venues where we play the big events."
It certainly paid off for Sherriff, who won his singles clash against in-form Black Jack Ali Forsyth in the morning and then teamed up with his senior teammate Nathan Rice in the pairs, to romp home against Russell Meyer and Gary Lawson.
The depth in the Australian ranks was apparent as they won the fours and singles clashes of the men's and women's tests in the morning session.
There was little respite in the visiting onslaught in the afternoon, as they rammed home their advantage and the New Zealand men, particularly, faltered in the pairs and triples.
The best New Zealand performance in the opening session was from Lawson's men's four, where the Black Jacks lead 5-1 after four ends.
However, a fine shot from Australian skip, Mark Casey, and a drive which was only fractionally off target by Lawson, allowed Australia to gain a six on the next end and the whole complexion of the game changed.
The Australians then took 17 unanswered shots in only five ends to cut the hosts out of contention.
In his singles match against Sherriff, Forsyth was always playing catch-up bowls after giving the rising star a seven-shot lead in the first five ends.
Forsyth, who had won his previous 11 international singles outings, did well to claw his way back to 7-10 but Sherriff showed his wide range of shots to ease out to a 21-11 win.
Similarly, New Zealand's Val Smith conceded a big deficit to Australia's other young singles gun, Kelsey Cottrell, with Cottrell racing out to a 12-2 lead.
Smith fought back to 9-13 but, with Smith holding four on the 18th end, the brilliant 17 year-old Queenslander drew to the jack with her last bowl to save the situation.
It was Cottrell's ability to draw shots under pressure which kept Smith out of the game and the young Australian held her early advantage to win 21-12.
Whether she was drawing, running or driving, Australian skip Karen Murphy continually deprived the New Zealanders of shots in both the women's fours and pairs.
The Black Jacks' best chance of a win came in the women's pairs when, trailing 14-16 on the last end, Smith and Jo Edwards held three shots. But Murphy picked off the shot bowls with a series of unerringly accurate drives.
New Zealand coach Dave Edwards hoped his disappointed players would bounce back today.
- NZPA
