Bowls: Bruce the star of section play in women's singles

Tayla Bruce has been in dominant form this week. Photo / Supplied

It has been another upset-free day at the Bowls New Zealand National Championships in New Plymouth with all of the leading contenders safely through another day in the women's singles and the men's pairs.

The star of Saturday's action was 21-year-old Tayla Bruce from the Burnside club, who eased through to post section play unbeaten in the women's singles.

Bruce, who has appeared in two of the past three National Championships finals and was knocked out in the semifinals in the other year, will be a leading contender to make the Blackjacks in 2017 under the new coaching set-up and has shown form that would indicate she will take some beating in the next week.

The youngster enjoyed a 21-12 win over Chris Budge, a 21-3 demolition of Tania Harris and a 21-5 win over Louise Fitness in a dominant Saturday.

Also through to post-section play are experienced Blackjacks Jo Edwards, Val Smith, Katelyn Inch, Kirsten Edwards and Angela Boyd, who all played at the recent World Championships while Selina Goddard, Ashleigh Jeffcoat and Sarah Scott have also made it through.

Smith had a win-or-go-home match against Carolyn Crawford in the final pool match on Saturday - she triumphed 21-12 to advance.

Father and son combination of Ali and Neville Forsyth, the defending men's pairs champions, progressed through unbeaten in pool play.

They will be joined there by New Zealand representatives Blake Signal, Richard Girvan, Gary Lawson, Peter Bellis and Rob Ashton while veteran bowler Phil Skoglund needed to win all three of his games on Saturday to book a place in the knockout stages - a feat he achieved.

The men's and women's fours begin on Sunday and will continue through Monday with the post-section play in all disciplines beginning from Tuesday.