Marlborough Express

High stakes at national championsh­ips

- GRANT HASSALL

Commonweal­th Games selections are up for grabs when the New Zealand bowls championsh­ip starts in Dunedin on Friday.

The nationals is the seventh and final event on the list of competitio­ns being used by selectors Sharon Sims and Peter Belliss to choose the five men and five women for April’s event on the Gold Coast.

New Zealand’s leading female players have responded with all eight national squad members attending the championsh­ips. However, only four of the seven in the men’s squad are taking part.

The biggest feature of the teams entered is the joining together, for the first time, of New Zealand’s two most dominant men’s skips from the past 20-odd years, Ali Forsyth and Gary Lawson.

Lawson defeated Forsyth in last season’s pairs final in New Plymouth, but will take the lead berth this time, with Forsyth skipping the duo.

In the fours they are joined by world singles champion Shannon McIlroy and the 1999 national singles winner, Justin Goodwin.

Their strongest opposition is likely to come from Games hopefuls Michael Kernaghan and Tony Grantham, who team up with NZ developmen­t player Rory Soden and Ryan Burnett, a Scotsman making big strides on the Gold Coast, and Belliss’ quartet which is similar to last season’s winning four.

Lance Tasker and Richard Girvan return with Belliss again and they are joined this time by twotime Newcastle district singles winner Michael Beesley.

The men start with singles on Friday, with defending champion Dean Elgar in the field of 240.

National squad members Paul Girdler, Michael Nagy and Blake Signal are all bypassing Dunedin.

Dream teams don’t always work, but they did for the all-NZ side of Tayla Bruce, Kirsten Edwards, Val Smith and Jo Edwards 12 months ago when they took the women’s fours. They will be reunited in Dunedin.

The women start with pairs, where 2008 world champions Smith and Edwards face the defending titleholde­rs Ashleigh Jeffcoat and Dale Rayner first up. Incredibly, Smith and Rayner also square off in the opening game of singles on December 31.

Other likely pairs include twotime champions sisters Angela and Mandy Boyd, Serena Matthews and Sandra Keith, and reigning singles champion Selina Goddard, who leads for Amy McIlroy.

Bruce and Katelyn Inch, both squad members, also form a likely pair, although they have an incredibly tough qualifying draw to negotiate.

After section play concludes on January 2, post section commences, ahead of the finals of all discipline­s at Taieri on January 6-8.

 ??  ?? Ali Forsyth will combine with Gary Lawson for what should be a formidable pairs team.
Ali Forsyth will combine with Gary Lawson for what should be a formidable pairs team.

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