Bowls: Top talent attracted to third year of NZ Open

A major bowls event which is rapidly rivalling the traditional nationals will start on Auckland greens today - the New Zealand Open - with the qualifying rounds for tournament proper at the Henderson club on Monday.

Now in its third year, the Open attracts a calibre of bowler which, on the whole, is probably superior to the overall field at the national championships.

This is because the Open is part of the Australian Grand Prix circuit, and so attracts leading bowlers from Australia. It also carries total prize money for the three disciplines - singles, pairs and triples - of $30,000.

Australian and New Zealand squad members have automatic entry into the main draw, as do Auckland centre championship winners Neville Hill and Diane Harris (singles), Chris Le Lievre and Danny Delaney, Emily Alabaster and Rima Strickland (pairs) and the Carlton-Cornwall club's women's triple of Karen de Jongh, Wendy Jensen and Bev Crowe.

National under-20 pairs champions, Ryan Khan and Scott Cottrell, have also been included.

The New Zealand men's squad is Andrew Todd, Ali Forsyth, Richard Girvan - all from the world championship winning team in 2008 - plus newcomer Mark Watt.

The New Zealand women's squad members are Jan Khan, Adele Greenfield, Karen Coombe, Kaaren Guilford, Manu Timoti and Dale Lang.

Also given direct entry are defending champions from last year: Matt Gallop in the men's singles, the Shayne Sincock-skipped men's triples, the Raewyn Willis-skipped women's triples and in the women's pairs the great Australian Karen Murphy and her Scottish partner, Kay Moran.

Thus, many fine bowlers who have been either national or centre champions, or national representatives, will be seeking to qualify, including Gary Lawson, Shannon McIlroy and Jamie Hill, all of whom have controversially dropped out of the national squad; Ivan Kostanich, Ross Haresnape, Rob Ashton, Wally Marsic, Peter Sain, and an Australian who won the women's singles in 2007, Sharyn Renshaw.

A total of 700 bowlers have entered, including 30 from Australia. Finals in the men's and women's triples and the women's pairs are scheduled for next Thursday and the singles and the men's pairs next Friday.