Leading Auckland bowler Dan Delany is making next week's national bowls open in Auckland a special mission.
In his bid to prove the national selectors wrong for omitting him from the New Zealand team which played this year's transtasman tests and will compete this month in the world championships in Adelaide, Delany is defending both the triples and pairs titles he won last year.
He will, however, have a couple of different partners.
With Richard Girvan and Shannon McIlroy unavailable because of the world championships, Delany will be with Onehunga clubmate Chris Le Lievre in the pairs and McIlroy's place in the triples will be filled by another clubmate, Scott Cottrell.
Also back to defend their titles when the main draw starts on Sunday at the Henderson club will be Auckland's Neil Fisher in the men's singles, the Waikato women's pair of Doreen Schumacher and Bev Corbett and the Northland women's triple of Anne Bateman, Ann Muir and Lauren Mills.
