KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand men's bowls team are chasing an elusive prize. But the key to achieving their goal, they believe, is to put it out of their minds.
The Kiwi men have never won the Leonard Trophy - awarded to the country with the most success in the four disciplines. But coach Dave Edwards said they will focus on each event individually.
"We're making the results of each discipline a focus in themselves," says Edwards. "We figure that if we do well in all of those, winning the Leonard Trophy will take care of itself. But our attitude is that it is a bonus."
Even when New Zealand won a couple of gold medals and a silver, on the last occasion the World Championships were staged in this country, at Henderson 20 years ago, the Kiwis missed out.
So Edwards' team of Gary Lawson, Ali Forsyth, Russell Meyer, Richard Girvan and Andrew Todd will not make wresting the Leonard Trophy their main priority when this year's World Championships start in Christchurch tomorrow.
Edwards said: "We know what happened at Henderson in 1988 and something similar happened in Scotland four years ago. The guys who were there in 2004 believe that too much emphasis was put on that aspect of the competition rather than individual events."
A similar approach will be taken to the women's overall teams prize, the Taylor Trophy, though New Zealand has won that previously, in the championships played in this country in 1973 when the legendary Elsie Wilkie and Cis Winstanley were in their prime.
After a fortnight on Canterbury greens in the recently concluded nationals, Edwards is bullish about the chances of both New Zealand teams over the next fortnight.
"The nationals have proven to be a brilliant vehicle for our preparation and it was pleasing to see our players have so much success," he said.
Meyer and Lawson, who will play together in the pairs, each won titles, Meyer in the singles and Lawson in the pairs. The Lawson-skipped four made the semifinals and Ali Forsyth, who will play the world singles, only missed out at the nationals after being eclipsed in a superb quarter-final against Meyer.
"If anything our players over-performed at the nationals," Edwards said. "Our main emphasis in playing in them was as part of our preparation rather than results, important though they are."
None of the New Zealand women won titles or even made finals, with Aucklanders Jo Babich and Bev Crowe, who are not in the national squad, proving the outstanding players with a pairs and fours double. But Edwards was happy with the form of the women players, pointing out that Jo Edwards had made the semifinals of the singles and Sharon Sims the pairs quarter-finals. The New Zealanders, as had everyone else in the singles, were overshadowed by the exploits of the outstanding Malaysian Siti Zalina Ahmad, rated by Edwards as the best woman player in the world at present.
Her exploits at the nationals had underlined just how competitive the standard will be in the world tournament.
Because the World Indoor Championships are being staged in Britain in the next two or three weeks there have been fears that the quality of the fields in Christchurch will be affected. But Edwards said this was a myth and the only notable absentees were Scotland's Alex Marshall, England's Andy Thomson and Australia's Kelvin Kerkow.
There were, however, plenty of class players in the British sides here, including the famed Scot Willie Wood and the equally celebrated Irishman Jim Baker. And as well as the Malaysians there was the renowned Irishwoman, Margaret Johnston, South Africans Lorna Trigwell and Loraine Victor and England's Amy Monkhouse.
A number of these players, plus the dynamic Canadian and successful fours skip at the nationals, Ryan Bester, has had plenty of practice in Christchurch on greens expected to be similar to those at the World Championship headquarters, Burnside.
The threat the Australians will pose in both men's and women's events was reinforced at the New Zealand Open in Auckland in November. Over the past year the Australians have trained in Christchurch.
