KEY POINTS:
Val Smith rates her singles win over England's Ellen Falkner in the world bowls at Christchurch's Burnside club on Saturday as the highlight of her life.
She believes winning the pairs title, in which section play started yesterday, with her friend from Nelson College for Girls schooldays, Jo
Edwards, would be even more satisfying.
"That would be the icing on the cake," she said as she and Edwards confidently began their quest for another New Zealand gold medal yesterday in difficult conditions because of a nasty easterly wind. They won all three matches against Swaziland, Argentina and Samoa.
Though there is five years' difference in their ages, they have been mates since meeting at college in 1983 and becoming involved in several sports at representative levels, notably softball and soccer.
In overcoming a strong opponent like Falkner, who had inflicted her only defeat in section play last week, Smith had to call on the tenacity and grit which won her selection for the singles, demonstrating what team coach Dave Edwards describes as "first bowl effectiveness". This was especially so when on the last end she took the mat and immediately drew to the jack.
The wind was a decisive factor in yesterday's matches and was not to the liking of men's singles specialist Ali Forsyth. He started with one easy win but was upset in the second round by the spectacular Canadian Ryan Bester 21-16 before finishing the day early with the third round bye.
Forsyth had an 11-4 lead, but was overwhelmed by Bester's blistering drives. "It's not so bad when the wind's consistent but when it gusts it's a lottery," Forsyth said. "But as the triples showed, finishing first and second in your section doesn't matter."
Bester, 23, one of the singles favourites, has already established an outstanding record, including the pairs title at the last world championship and skipping a composite four to the recent New Zealand national title.
The Sydney-based Bester said his familiarity with Canterbury's winds, was an advantage.
The Gary Lawson-skipped men's four had comfortable wins over Namibia, Papua-New Guinea, but needed Lawson's last bowl to pip South Africa in the last match.
The women's triple of Sharon Sims, Jan Khan and Marina Khan had a moderate day, suffering a second-round reversal against the Lorna Trigwell-skipped South Africans.
New Zealand were not helped by dropping a seven on an early end, but recovered to be holding the game on the last end at 18-17. But Trigwell, with the last bowl, played a weighted shot into the head to shift the jack towards two of her bowls. In their third match they had to pull back a 9-0 deficit to beat Norfolk Island.