Bowls: Black Jacks test out Northern game

New Zealand Black Jack Shannon McIlory. Photo / Crispin Anderlini

New Zealand's top lawn bowlers will try to get a handle on the slow greens expected at the Commonwealth Games by heading to the Northern Hemisphere this weekend.

The Black Jacks will play a tri-series with Australia and Wales in Wales before they take part in an eight-team invitational tournament in Glasgow on the greens that will be used at the Games next July.

New Zealand will take seven men and seven women on the trip, which will act as a dummy run for national coach Dave Edwards to assess combinations ahead of the Games.

"We'll be trying all sorts of different combinations right through the four disciplines, singles, pairs, triples and fours," he said.

"It'll be assisting us in the selection process. The key thing is getting used to the conditions up there; the greens, the surroundings, everything like that. So it's going to be a very important and helpful trip."

Five men and women will eventually be selected for the Games next year, and each bowler will take part in two disciplines, so working out combinations will be important.

But of greater concern will be how his bowlers can adapt to the slower greens of the Northern Hemisphere.

"It's just getting used to a completely different style of game. The jack's always on the move in the Northern Hemisphere. You always try to dead draw it to the jack but up there you've got to be at it more and short bowls are a real killer up there."

During the winter, the Black Jacks have got together for training at the Pakuranga Bowling Club, where there's a custom-built slow green, but between times they have relied on a secret weapon - croquet lawns.

"They're not flat so it's mainly to get used to the speed and the style of delivery and your technique that you need," Edwards said.

The invitational tournament, from August 26 to September 1, will feature the Commonwealth's best bowlers with Australia, Canada, South Africa, Malaysia and England joining New Zealand and two Scottish teams. The tri-series gets under way on Monday.

Next year, the Black Jacks will meet Australia in Traralgon, Victoria, in the transtasman contest in March. Edwards will likely select New Zealand's shadow team for the Commonwealth Games to play Australia.

Teams for the Northern Hemisphere tour: Men: Shannon McIlroy, Ali Forsyth, Richard Girvan, Dan Delany, Tony Grantham, Blake Signal, Andrew Kelly. Women: Jo Edwards, Val Smith, Mandy Boyd, Angela Boyd, Sandra Keith, Lisa White, Amy McIlroy.