Bowls: Bronze for Kiwi bowls quartet

The Peter Belliss-skipped New Zealand fours had to settle for a bronze medal at the world men's bowls championships in Johannesburg last night after losing their semifinal 23-19 to Wales.

Wales were to play the winner of Scotland and South Africa early today for the gold medal, with New Zealand's hopes of winning the overall title, the Leonard Trophy, resting on Andrew Curtain in the singles.

The Kiwi quartet of Belliss, Rowan Brassey, Russell Meyer and Paul Girdler got off to a flying start against Wales.

The Welsh four of Mark Williams, Steve Rees, Rob Weale and Will Thomas had no answer to New Zealand early on, and the Kiwis raced to a 7-1 lead after just four ends. But Wales stormed back with a five on the fifth end and a two on the sixth to edge in front.

New Zealand held on to lead 19-17 after 18 ends but the Welsh nerves held under pressure to secure the closest of victories.

In a dramatic finish, Belliss came tantalisingly close on the final end to knocking two Welsh shot bowls out of the head which would have given New Zealand a sensational win.

Curtain, previously unbeaten in seven matches, lost to Australian Steve Glasson and Dave Trebert, of Guernsey, yesterday to leave him requiring a win in his last pool match, against Hong Kong's Noel Kennedy early today to make the semifinals.

Faced with a tough, three-match schedule, Curtain dropped his opening match to Glasson, who he beat in February's transtasman test, 21-12, went down 21-20 to Trebert but beat Swaziland's Derek James 21-14.

- NZPA