Blackjacks pair in dominant form

Blackjacks Jo Edwards and Angela Boyd scored a morale-boosting win over Australia to go through unbeaten on the opening day of the World Bowls women’s pairs championships in Christchurch.

New Zealand made a flying start in the opening round of section play, winning all 12 games yesterday across four disciplines.

Edwards and Boyd opened their account with a thumping 28-9 win over Cyprus and then beat the Philippines’ Ainie Knight and Ascuncion Bruce, 19-14.

But it was their commanding 24-7 win over Australia’s Karen Murphy and Kelsey Cottrell that caught the eye.

The victory was just the fillip the Blackjacks needed after four bronze medals in the first week.

Nelson’s Shannon Mcilroy was among three men in his section to win their first three singles matches.

The 29-year-old had to work hard to win his opening singles match 21-17 against Hong Kong China’s Tony Cheung, but was much more convincing in the afternoon round, downing Brunei’s Abd Rahman HJ Omar, 21-10 before a hard-fought 21-17 win over Cyprus’ Loukas Paraskeva.

The Kiwi men’s four of Mike Nagy Mike Kernaghan, Blake Signal and skip Ali Forsyth were comfortable 26-10 victors over their Israel counterparts and backed up with a good 13-9 win over a Canadian team skipped by Steve Mckerihen before routing Fiji 25-5.

Edwards and Boyd were the only team with three wins in their pairs section, while Wales, Scotland and South Africa had perfect 3-0 records in the other group.