High-quality field for tournament

One of the highest quality fields assembled for at least a generation will commence the Taranaki men’s Open fours bowls tournament today.

Included in the 2022 field are two past multiple world championships and legends of the game in New Zealand, Peter Belliss (Aramoho) and Gary Lawson (Stokes Valley).

Belliss returns for his ninth successive Open, while it will be Lawson’s third. He last played and won it in 2011.

In addition to Belliss and Lawson, there are five other players who have also achieved full New Zealand honours.

Belliss’ side includes Keith Slight, who attended the 1986 Commonwealth Games, while Lawson plays with Andrew Curtain.

Curtain won the 2000 world triples with Belliss.

Dan Delany (Ellerslie), who represented New Zealand at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, continues to prefer the Open over the national tournament.

Delany has been coming for 25 years and the four-time champion is a threat again.

Neville Hill’s style was never suited to the heavy English greens he encountered in 1991, but the quicker Taranaki surfaces will be to his liking.

He is part of Mike Bradshaw’s Royal Oak quartet.

Maurice Symes (Renwick, Marlborough) is best remembered for claiming bronze in the pairs at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

Symes remains a stronger performer and is expected to feature.

The performance of other leading bowlers will also be of interest to the national selectors.

The make-up of the Black Jacks squad for Birmingham in July has yet to be determined.

Of the 14 men in the national high performance squad – five will be picked for the Games – four are involved this week: Lawson, defending Open champion Dan Dickison (Tauranga), last season’s runner-up Raymond Martin (Victoria) and Lance Pascoe.

Pascoe plays third for Lawson. But in addition to some of the biggest names in the country, there are a host of other top players.

They include two Pt Chevalier teams, skipped by Brody Dix and Aiden Takarua, Brian Little (Palmerston North), Mark Noble (Takaro), Sanjhe Prasad (Riverside) and Ray Park (Wanganui).

Among the Taranaki teams that could make the closing rounds are Tower’s Scott Roberts and Mark Anderson, Paritutu’s Hamish Kape and Darren Goodin, and West End’s John Garrud and Craig De Faria.

There will be a sentimental rejoining of forces for the team entered under Tower’s Russell Hardy.

Hardy, Graham Baxter, Grant Pease and John Gray will have plenty of memories to recount.

They won the 2003 Open after losing the 2002 final on five extra ends.