Bowls: NZ takes Tri Nations cup

The New Zealand bowls team yesterday added the Tri Nations Cup to the Trans-Tasman Trophy they won the day before, in a promising buildup to the Commonwealth Games just six weeks away.

The New Zealand team were in outstanding form at the Tri Nations Cup, a triangular test series involving Malaysia and Australia, at Melbourne.

The men and women both gave the Australians a solid hiding to take the Trans-Tasman Trophy within two days of the three-day series.

But when the men lost to Australia in their third encounter in the morning and the women lost to Malaysia, it left some doubt as to whether they would win the overall Tri Nations Cup.

The men's team responded by beating Malaysia decisively in the singles, pairs and triples during the afternoon to clinch the Cup.

New Zealand won the inaugural series, by taking three of the test rubbers, to two by Malaysia and one by Australia.

New Zealand co-coach Peter Belliss said it was a pleasing result.

"With the Commonwealth Games so close, a lot of the emphasis was towards that, but one of the things we talked about as a team was that it was important to get a good result over the last two days of this series which we are able to do," he told NZPA.

Russell Meyer was unbeaten in the men's singles before today's play, but he was soundly beaten by Australia's Shane Globits this morning, before bouncing back to wallop Mohammed Affendy Tan in straight sets.

"Shane hadn't played very well in the earlier matches, but he really turned on it this morning, and while I played some of my best bowls of the series he was too good," Meyer said.

The triple, skipped by Gary Lawson, beat their Australian rivals to finish on a good note.

The New Zealand women were thrilled with their dominance over Australia. While singles player Jo Edwards and the triples combo were the mainstays for the first two days, today the pair of Marina and Jan Khan hit form with two solid wins.

Belliss said Marina Khan in particular took the game to Australia's much vaunted pairing of Lynsey Armitage and Karen Murphy.

Belliss, a New Zealand bowls legend, wasn't too concerned about the men's loss to Australia.

"You've always got to expect a hiccup against Australia, but the Australians have had lots of training camps leading up to this series so to beat them overall is very satisfying.

He said there was still work to do before the Commonwealth Games.

"We have bowled too many short bowls in this series. The players are aware of it and have to continue to work away at it."

- NZPA