Bowls: Triples have another win before Games

MELBOURNE - The New Zealand men's triples bowls team completed their build-up matches for the Commonwealth Games with a handy win over Malaysia at Melbourne's State Bowls Centre yesterday.

The Gary Lawson-skipped team beat the Malaysians 11-5 16-4 after wins in practice matches last week against Namibia and one of the main medal hopes in Scotland.

While men's singles player Russell Meyer also won his match, the other teams -- the men's pairs and the women's singles, pairs and triples -- also lost their matches in tiebreaks.

Bowls NZ high performance manager Ashley Light said that while those results were not ideal with the Games competition starting on Thursday, the combinations were trying different strategies.

"We are still in the preparation phase and the players were trying a few things like testing the Malaysians with different lengths," he said.

Richard Girvan said the triple combination had treated the warm-up games seriously.

"Winning them is a confidence booster for sure," he said.

The New Zealand triple won the gold medal at the Asia Pacific championships in Melbourne in November and after a rough start, finished strongly at the recent Tri-Nations Cup against Australia and Malaysia.

New Zealand have a tough draw in the triples, after organisers decided not to seed the teams. The top six triple teams from the 2004 World Bowls championship are in two of the four sections.

Wales and Ireland are in New Zealand's section. With only teams from each section progressing to the quarterfinals, it sets the scene for a cut-throat section round.

Girvan said there would be no let-up and that spectators might witness some spectacular play with the famous Lawson drive coming into play.

"There could be plenty of jackbombing," he said.

Girvan, who plays for the Taren Point club from south Sydney in the New South Wales premier league, said the greens at the State Centre were slower than the Kiwis would prefer, but their trips to Melbourne in November and February and the past week meant they were acclimatising to them well.

"We're improving each day," he said.

- NZPA