Bowls: Kiwi bowlers lead sections

WELLINGTON - The New Zealand men's bowls team stayed on a roll at the world championships in South Africa yesterday with singles representative Andrew Curtain remaining unbeaten and the four recovering from Monday's loss to Scotland.

Curtain beat Canadian James Boyen 21-16 and Ted Spirrat, of the United States, 21-6 to top his section.

"Things have been running pretty nicely but I've got seven games still to play and I need to win at least five," Curtain said. "The job is only half done, so I'm taking it one day at a time."

Team manager Peter Kean said Curtain next faced a potentially difficult, and lesser known, opponent from Singapore.

"They just call him Chai. The guy beat John Price from Wales in a huge upset and he ran Noel Kennedy from Hong Kong to 21-19, so that was an upset as well," Kean said.

Curtain also plays the Norfolk Island representative.

The four of Peter Belliss, Rowan Brassey, Russell Meyer and Paul Girdler also lead their section following wins over Argentina 33-14 and Malaysia 24-14.

They were to play Zambia overnight (NZ time) followed by the unpredictable Fiji, who are only one game behind New Zealand.

"Fiji pushed Scotland close and they beat England by 10 so they're firing on all cylinders," Kean said.

"They're hot or they're cold but they've done well against us in the past so we won't be underestimating them."

Kean said the team were bearing in mind the fact that other favoured nations had fallen victim to upsets.

- NZPA