Bowls: Fortunes varying on greens

By SIMON LOUISSON

The women's fours finally found some form yesterday, winning both their matches to qualify for the quarter-finals.

However, other New Zealand results were patchy. The highly-fancied men's pair of Russell Meyer and Paul Girdler face early elimination from section play after losing 18-10 to South Africa.

They must win their match against Australia today and their final game the next day against Norfolk Island to have any chance of making the final eight.

"We need to come out a different team against Australia and we need to take the game to them," team manager Peter Keane said. "We have only shown glimpses of our form, but I believe we have the ability to win.

"The one thing in our favour is that Australia were beaten 22-6 by England and their confidence will be equally as low."

The women's four of Wendy Jensen, Patsy Jorgensen, Jan Khan and Anne Lomas beat the Cook Islands 25-9 first up and then disposed of Fiji 13-9 in a tighter contest.

They play Scotland in the quarter-finals today.

Although they lost 17-15 against Wales yesterday, the men's four of Andrew Curtain, Rowan Brassey, Sean Johnson and Peter Belliss have qualified for the quarter-finals, where they will meet Northern Ireland.

The match see-sawed, with the New Zealanders, after a slow start, picking up seven shots on the 13th and 14th ends to take a 15-14 lead.

They were holding two shots, but Wales skip Dai Wilkins knocked the New Zealand bowls out with his penultimate shot.

Coach Stewart Buttar said the men's four could take plenty of confidence from the game, despite the loss.

New Zealand are not the only team having problems. The Scotland four skipped by bowling legend Willie Wood were eliminated, and he was critical of the format.

"We've thrown only 90 bowls - it's a bit hard. We should play more games to give players a chance," he said.

Part of Scotland's problem was that they managed only a draw against lowly Brunei, where just a handful of people play the game.

All the New Zealanders have struggled to come to terms with the slow greens at picturesque Heaton Park.

The men's EAD (elite athletes with disability) triple of John Davies, Barry Wynks and Peter Horne had their first outing yesterday, coming away with a 16-6 win. Medals won by EAD athletes count in the official total.

- NZPA

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