Thin men’s field looks ripe for the picking
After the success enjoyed by the New Zealand men at the World Bowls Championships in Christchurch earlier in the month, there will be much disappointment only two of the five members of the squad will feature in the national championships.
The annual competition, which is being held in Taranaki and starts tomorrow, has traditionally been the place where the best must show up if they wish to be considered for the national side.
But this time only Blake Signal and Ali Forsyth will feature.
After the world event, Michael Kernaghan, Michael Nagy and Shannon Mcilroy have elected to bypass the championships.
Added to that list are recent internationals Paul Girdler, Andrew Kelly and Tony Grantham, and while there remains a good sprinkling of provincial players, one could argue the men’s field assembled is the weakest in living memory.
Signal joins a powerful four headed by Peter Belliss and including Richard Girvan and Lance Tasker, while Forsyth will skip a quartet with an Australian touch.
Other prominent competitors in the championships include Rob Ashton, who teams with Petar Sain, Philip Skoglund, Jamie Hill, Brian Baldwin, a host of national age-grade representatives and multiple champion Gary Lawson.
Lawson, after two failures to qualify in the fours with powerful teams in the last three years, returns with a less glamorous side of Roger Stevens, Chris Le Lievre and Neville Rodda. Stevens is a Southland rep, Le Lievre a past pairs and fours winner, while Rodda is in his second year in Wellington after arriving from Australia, where his biggest achievement was winning the country’s open pairs in 2011.
In the lead-in to this year’s event, Lawson was full of praise of the national side. ‘‘To win the Leonard Trophy was a great performance. It is hard to fault the men’s performance. New Zealand and Australia dominated the rest of the world.’’
Lawson went on to say the future also looked bright for the Kiwis. ‘‘We always knew that Ali and Shannon were world class. Now you have to say that Michael Kernaghan is as well, with the other two showing the potential, too.’’
Inevitably at the commencement of the championships, Lawson is often drawn into discussion of whether or not he will secure his 11th title. He has been waiting seven years and jointly heads the all-time men’s list on 10 with Danny O’connor and the late Nick Unkovich.
‘‘You’ve always got to look at it as a goal. I always wanted to win one. Now I want 11.’’
Lawson recently qualified for the final of the Canterbury singles, which will be played next year, but is expecting a tough opening tomorrow at the Vogeltown club, where he meets Hill first up.
In the singles, players require three wins from the four rounds to qualify – ‘‘so one of us are going to be straight into sudden death. It could be a long day.’’
While Lawson’s team lacks the big names of recent years, he says individually the players have the right attitude and he is hopeful of a strong showing.