Bowls: Fours favourites living up to their rankings

All but one of the fancied combinations achieved their target of qualifying for further fours play on the last day of qualifying at the national championships in Christchurch yesterday.

In the women's section, Gail Dick's Auckland/North Harbour, Michelle Preston, of Winton, and Wellington's Nina de Munnik all won in the morning to secure a spot in the post-section draw of 38 teams.

United's Barbara McGregor won twice to make the four-win qualifying mark in the afternoon. However, Lyn Bevin, of Andersons Bay, could not complete her escape act.

After two losses on Monday, the event was effectively sudden-death for her Dunedin team, and though they won twice on Tuesday and again in the morning round yesterday to stay alive, they fell at the final hurdle to drop out of the tournament in the afternoon.

Among the men, a host of teams needing one further win yesterday got it in the morning round.

Dunedin's Terry Scott and Ken Walker, Marlborough's Andre Smith, and Petar Sain, of Carlton, all of whom skipped or played in previous champion fours teams, won through.

Dave Burgess, of Te Rangi in Invercargill, and Canterbury's Maurice Symes lost in the morning session but bounced back in the afternoon to confirm their places in today's knockout phase.

New pairs champions Mike Small and Kevin Gore, of Burnside, qualified their team for the fours post-section play, while Timaru's Dave Hanson and Barrie Andrews, and singles champion Ali Forsyth, all skipped their teams into the playoffs.

- NZPA