Top teams stay on track for titles at national bowls champs in New Plymouth

Trends from the opening days continued in the fours’ section-play at the New Zealand bowls championships in Taranaki on Sunday, with nearly all of the top teams emerging unbeaten.

In the women’s fours, the favoured Jo Edwards team – including Val Smith, Kirsten Edwards and Tayla Bruce – won all three games in a tough section at Lepperton.

A useful Auckland composite side skipped by Alison Rennie also did the same, as did teams headed by past NZ representatives from Wellington, Dale Rayner and Lisa White.

Leigh Griffin, whose composite side includes Angela Boyd, finished with two wins. They were undone by fellow two-game winner Agnes Motu (Pt Chevalier) 18-8 in the third round.

In the men’s event, the three big combinations – skipped by Ali Forsyth (Nelson), Gary Lawson (Sumner) and Peter Belliss (Aramoho) – all won three times. Another big name to emerge unbeaten was Brian Baldwin (Paritutu).

Forsyth’s new combination, which includes two players from Australia, beat Colin Christie (New Plymouth) 21-12, Gerald Hulst (Carlton Cornwall) 19-9 and and Dean McMurchy (Kensington) 20-12.

Belliss’ victims were singles qualifier Michael Jelley (Mairangi Bay) 20-10, Allan Hill (Hampstead) 17-16 and Eric Foreman (Inglewood) 17-13.

Other three-game winners included Sheldon Bagrie-Howley (Gore), Bradley Down (Victoria), Darren Goodin (Paritutu), Ray Lovie (Eastbourne), Raymond Martin (Victoria) and West End sides skipped by Dean Elgar and the impressive Ross Henderson.

Carlton Cornwall’s Rob Ashton needs two further wins, after a 17-16 loss to Down, while Jamie Hill’s Wellington side exited with three losses. Teams need four wins from the six rounds to qualify.

Play in the fours continues on Monday, with three further rounds.

Meanwhile, there was almost a perfect record for the leading lights during Saturday’s play in the men’s pairs and women’s singles.

The 2008 world singles winner, Val Smith (Merrylands) suffered a first-up loss, but won her next three to qualify. She will be joined in post-section on Wednesday by the other four members of NZ’s 2016 World Bowls side – Jo Edwards (United), Angela Boyd (Burnside), Katelyn Inch (Oxford WMC) and Kirsten Edwards (United).

After a loss on Friday, Belliss and Lance Tasker (Tauranga) walked through with two easy victories to qualify in the men’s pairs, as did Lawson and Neville Rodda (Victoria).

Jamie Hill (Eastbourne) and Barry O’Brien (Victoria) and the 2015 winners, Rob Ashton and Petar Sain (Carlton Cornwall) advanced in a similar manner.

Richard Girvan (Onehunga) and Blake Signal (Stokes Valley) went through emphatically with four straight victories, as the Gold Coast-based duo of Brian Baldwin and Gary Mounsey (Paritutu).