Bowls: Big upset as champ exits early

Val Smith. Photo / Simon Baker

World champion Val Smith had a shocking early exit from the national bowls championships yesterday after managing only two out of four wins. She lost to Lower Hutt's Wendy Mackie and Laird Park's Lorraine Mangin respectively at the Wellington event.

Another favourite, Marina Khan, also had a cut-throat day after winning her first two games and then narrowly losing the third and fourth, which forced her out of the singles.

The most notable players to make it through to post-section include Beckenham's Jan Khan, Victoria's Leigh Griffin, Feona Sayles, defending champion Sue Wightman from the Hakaru Bowling Club and Hong Kong Classic singles champion Genevieve Baildon.

A group of young guns won through to post-section in the form of New Zealand under-25 squad members Clare McCaul, Amy Brenton and Misty Arnold. Southern's Talent Development Squad's Abbey Dugdale and under-18 New Zealand representative Kirsten Griffin both wrapped up three wins.

In the men's pairs, a large core of favourites had three solid wins. These include the pairings of Shannon McIlroy and Dwayne Cameron, Andrew Kelly and Nick Buttar, Ryan Bester and Mike Carroll, Kevin Robinson and Steve Posa and Gary Lawson and Danny Delaney.

Defending champions Rob Ashton and Ray Boffa have completed the clean sweep on day one, as did the Fairfield duo of Ken Walker and Andy McLean and the Blenheim pairing of Matt Gallop and Steven Gallop.

Other contenders included Peter Belliss and Justin Goodwin, Ali Forsyth and Richard Girvan, Sean O'Neill and Barrie Andrews, Terry Scott and Shayne Sincock, Jim Scott and Mark Watt and under-20 Kittyhawks champion Sam Morton and Warwick Frederikson who all secured two wins out of three.

The surprise of the day was Blaketown's Lance Pascoe, who teamed with Birkenhead's Dave Good to lose three straight games and take an early exit.

Newly named under-25 New Zealand representative Gregory Ruaporo is hanging on for a place in post-section, securing one of three wins with partner Ciaran MacElvanna and requiring a clean sweep today to be present in the knockout stages.

The men's pairs qualifiers will be found today.

- NZPA