KEY POINTS:
Three of New Zealand's bowling "young guns", Mark Watt, Andrew Kelly and Genevieve Baildon, have a chance to prove in the national open championships that they deserve their national squad selections.
Last month the naming of the fledgling trio and a fourth, Clare McCaul, in the chosen 20 players, caused something of a stir in the bowling community with some diehards questioning their rapid elevation into the game's elite.
But national coach Dave Edwards was quick to explain that while Watt, Kelly, Baildon and McCaul (who is not playing in the nationals) were all still in their development stages, he and his fellow selectors recognised them as "raw talent" who should be fully fledged internationals of the future.
Edwards, then, will be wanting his young charges to show that they warrant the backing of the selection panel and all four have the ability to feature prominently as the championships begin in Auckland.
The men's and women's singles and pairs start tomorrow, culminating with the finals on Friday, January 9. The men's and women's fours start the next day and finish on January 14.
Neither of the women's singles finalists from last year, Siti Zalina of Malaysia and Nelson's Marie Watson, will be in Auckland and this is one discipline which appears to be wide open.
Regular international Jan Khan showed she is in good form when she won this year's Canterbury singles title, while other national squad members, Jo Babich (Carlton/Cornwall), Mary Campbell (Tauranga South), Baildon (Hillcrest) and Serena Matthews (Elmwood) are likely to figure in post-section play.
Marina Khan (Tokoroa) will be wanting to show that her discarding from national ranking was undeserved.
The reigning men's singles champion, Russell Meyer, now resides in England and the men's singles is also a case of "anybody's guess" for the championship.
The hottest player on the national circuit at the start of the season was Stoke's Shannon McIlroy and he must carry high hopes of featuring at the end, while Eastbourne's Matt Gallop, who was outstanding in winning the recent New Zealand Open singles, is another young player who could upset some of the more experienced campaigners.
Other top-class campaigners include Black Jacks players Ali Forsyth, Richard Girvan, Gary Lawson, and Sean O'Neill, national squad members Tony Grantham, Jamie Hill, Kelly, and Watt, Canadian Ryan Bester and expatriate Kiwi Peter Belliss.
Back to defend their women's pairs title will be Babich and her Carlton/Cornwall lead, Bev Crowe, while another pair to win this title twice, Sims and Campbell, should again be competitive. Jan Khan and Hillcrest's Kathleen Morrison could feature, along with club combinations Matthews and Bev Morel (Elmwood) and the Frankton Railway pairing of Rita Berridge and Jan Malcolm.
Lawson, chasing down his 10th national title, has Eastbourne clubmate Justin Goodwin alongside him in his bid to retain the men's pairs title, but they will find tough competition from Bester and former world pairs champion Rowan Brassey, Girvan and Forsyth and the redoubtable Belliss, paired this year with outstanding Canterbury player, Shane Sincock.
- NZPA
