Bowls: Women's four win but Castle suffers two losses in singles

Newly crowned pairs world champions Jo Edwards and Sharon Sims had no time to rest at the women's world bowls championships at Leamington Spa, England, as attention turned to fours and singles.

The champion New Zealand pair, teamed with Val Smith and Wendy Jensen, opened their fours campaign with a 27-9 win over Japan.

They settled quickly and were rarely troubled by the Japanese.

New Zealand are the defending champion in the fours.

However, the news was not so good for New Zealand singles player Marlene Castle, who suffered two defeats. Drawn in a very tough pool, Castle opened her tournament with a close 20-21 loss against a United States player.

Things got worse in the afternoon session when Castle lost to Commonwealth Games gold medallist Siti Zalina Ahmad, from Malaysia, 13-21.

Those losses mean Castle cannot realistically afford to lose any more section play matches if she is to progress to the quarter-finals.

The top two nations from each group will qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.


- NZPA