KEY POINTS:
Val Smith, New Zealand women's singles specialist, put herself back into gold medal reckoning at the world championships in Christchurch despite an early setback yesterday.
Smith dropped her sixth round morning match to England's Emma Falkner 21-15 in circumstances which could have been psychologically damaging. For Smith, picking her green and weight superbly in the early ends, had built up what promised to be a commanding 9-3 lead over the Englishwoman.
But with a dying away of the north-westerly, and an apparent change in the green, Falkner came back strongly and with some outstanding draw bowls, outplayed Smith over the final two-thirds of the game for a win.
It was Smith's first loss in the tournament and the win continued Falkner's unbeaten record. Such was her precise drawing many started to anticipate a possible final between Falkner and the talented Malaysian Siti Zalina Ahmad, the recent winner of the New Zealand singles.
Falkner, a tiny 28-year-old from Cambridgeshire, has come to these championships with an impressive record. At 22 she won a Commonwealth Games gold medal and she has the unique feat of winning recent English titles with her mother in pairs as well as her grandmother in triples.
She also has had an intensive preparation for these championships, having competed in the recent nationals and gaining a place in the final in a composite four skipped by Bay of Plenty's Mina Paul.
But just as she was beginning to be rated a short-priced favourite to make the final she in turn was upset in the afternoon round, with Wale's Kathy Pearce a decisive 21-9 winner.
That helped cancel Smith's morning loss. For the New Zealander recovered for a comfortable afternoon win and, having beaten Pearce on Sunday, now is back to level terms with Falkner in the section.
"Actually I didn't see the loss to Ellen as that much of a setback," Smith said. "The big thing really is to finish in the top four and whoever you play in post-section is going to be tough. I was always counting on a couple of losses on the way through."
Smith believed the change in her game against Falkner when she forfeited such a handy lead came when Falkner picked the green better.
Also bouncing back after a morning loss was the men's triple of Richard Girvan, Ali Forsyth and Andrew Todd, who were downed by an inspired Fiji line-up 12-10, with the Fijian skip Keshwa playing some wonderful pressure shots.
But the Girvan-skipped triple followed this with a 17-9 win over a strong, and until then unbeaten, Neil Booth-skipped Irish line-up.
"We bounced back brilliantly," Girvan said. "The boys up front were awesome. We are now right back in the thick of things."
Of the New Zealanders, only the men's pair of Gary Lawson and Russell Meyer remained unbeaten with two easy wins and the Jo Edwards-skipped women's four also had two comfortable wins yesterday to stay in top four contention.
