Bowls: Big guns stamp their mark

Richard Girvan. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand squad and development team members stormed the greens with some superb performances in section games for the men's and women's pairs at the national open championships at the Carlton Cornwall Bowls Club in Auckland today.

Black Jacks Danny Delany and Richard Girvan (Onehunga) maintained yesterday afternoon's form by humbling their opponents in the final three rounds of the qualifiers today.

Black Jack team-mate Genevieve Baildon (Hillcrest) made an upbeat return to the greens with New Zealand squad member Jan Shirley (Canterbury) after bowing out in the singles yesterday.

Rested and obviously ready to go, the only other Black Jack in the tournament, Leanne Curry (Frankton Railway), launched herself and skip Sue Burnand (Frankton Railway) into the fray.

Defending champions in the fours, Curry and Burnand won all three matches played today and will no doubt face tomorrow's section play challenge with extra confidence as they roll up against the proven abilities of Kaaren Guilford (Johnsonville) and Feona Sayles (Northern BC) in the fourth round of six.

Qualifiers will be found in the women's pairs by the end of tomorrow and Baildon (winner World Junior Cup 2009) and Shirley will be jostling to find themselves a place among the bowlers entering the sudden death field of play on Monday.

But to earn themselves a berth the women will need to keep up the pace and stretch their leads after winning two games from three today by fine margins.

Clare McCaul (Silverstream), another New Zealand squad member, teamed up with Amy Brenton (Stoke) to overcome all opposition in their three matches on the Balmoral greens.

Meanwhile, in the men's pairs, the victories came thick and fast as Black Jacks Girvan and Delany brushed aside all challengers and joined New Zealand squad members Shannon McIlroy (Stoke), Andrew Kelly (Canterbury), Greg Ruaporo (Auckland) and Chris Le Lievre (Onehunga) among the qualifiers for sudden death post-section play on Saturday.

McIlroy is paired with fours defending champion Matthew Gallop (Cabramatta), while Kelly and Ruaporo form their own talented duo and Le Lievre has teamed up with former New Zealand representative Gary Lawson (Belfast) to make a play for the silverware.

The winner of numerous national titles, Petar Sain's (Carlton-Cornwall) team qualified along with former national representative Blake Signal's (Stokes Valley) and winner of the 2009 men's pairs title Rob Ashton's (Johnsonville) pairs.

Tomorrow from 8:30am the men return to the greens for a day of singles action to find the qualifiers among them, and the women finish what they started today with the final qualifying rounds in the pairs.