KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's hopes of a gold medal in the women's pairs at the world bowls championships in Christchurch took one step forward yesterday only to incur a setback as rain set in for the afternoon round.
Jo Edwards and Val Smith started with a thrilling 18-17 win over
England's Ellen Falkner and Wendy King, but then lost out in another tight encounter against the other gun combination in the section, Australia's Karen Murphy and Lyndsay Armitage, 14-10.
Despite the loss, having played their two toughest opponents, Edwards and Smith looked assured of a top four finish at least, though Edwards said yesterday they still had some dangerous matches ahead, especially those against Ireland, with Margaret Johnston skipping, Zambia and Fiji.
"Considering we played two tough teams today, one out of two is not too bad a result," Edwards said. "But you always want to beat Australia. We hung in there for a long time but over the last few ends didn't have the bowls on the head and didn't give ourselves a chance."
New Zealand did have a 9-7 lead after 13 ends, but that was never a comfortable gap, particularly against a bowler of Murphy's class. Arguably she is the best woman bowler in the world and as she showed yesterday is capable of all the shots, drawing or playing with weight.
New Zealand's win over England, though, was a fine effort, with Smith compensating for many short bowls by Edwards by coming on to her game strongly over the last few ends after Falkner and King had grabbed a 11-9 lead after nine ends.
New Zealand had taken a 9-2 lead after six ends, but squandered that by dropping a five on the seventh end. "That was a bad five to drop," Smith said. "But it was an important game to win for our confidence."
Scotland and Malaysia have dominated the other section and, like the Australians, are unbeaten after five rounds.
New Zealand had two wins in all other disciplines yesterday, Gary Lawson's men's four remaining unbeaten with big wins against token opposition, and the Sharon Sims-skipped women's triple also met less-fancied sides, though they were stretched against Brunei.
Men's singles specialist Ali Forsyth was in much better form, with a 21-7 morning win over Zimbabwe's Roy Garden, the singles gold medallist at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Forsyth followed this with a 21-8 win over Spain's Nick Cole.
Cole produced a major boilover in yesterday's morning round, beating Aron Sherriff, 21-18.
Sherriff wasted little time brooding over his upset defeat to Cole. In the afternoon round he needed only 40 minutes to beat Brunei's Metali HJH Amalia. But the loss to Cole was costly for Sherriff as he could yet be ousted as the section's second qualifier, as he is still to meet Forsyth, dynamic Canadian Ryan Bester and the talented Malaysian Safuan Said.
Bester and Said are unbeaten in the section.