KEY POINTS:
Australia struck what could be a telling psychological blow in section play at the world bowls championships in Christchurch by toppling Gary Lawson's skipped New Zealand four 20-10 yesterday.
Apart from the first three ends when New Zealand gained singles to lead 3-0, the Australian line-up of Mark
Casey, Nathan Rice, Wayne Turley and Bill Cornehis were always in control, securing the game with a three on the 17th end to go to 20-9.
Such is the format of the championships, though, that a loss at this stage is not necessarily a disaster. With the top four of each section qualifying, New Zealand, with four wins from five games after a 26-11 morning win yesterday against Jersey, are still on course to finish at least second.
But the intense rivalry with Australia means yesterday's comfortable win has added even more to their rival's already considerable confidence.
Lawson agreed afterwards that Australia had been much the better side and that he personally had not had a good game. But he vowed he would be better from tomorrow onwards.
He was quick also to dispel any suspicion that he and his two, Russell Meyer, were suffering a downer after the euphoria of Friday's pairs success.
"It was just a bad day at the office," he said.
"We were forced into too much Mickey Mouse stuff, yard-ons and that sort of thing." New Zealand have what should be comfortable games today against Cook Islands and Argentina.
Men's singles specialist Ali Forsyth also suffered a loss yesterday in his section, following his defeat to the Canadian hot-shot Ryan Bester on Sunday. Yesterday the talented Malaysian Safaun Said beat him 21-17 and with Bester and Australia's Aron Sherriff is unbeaten in this section.
It helps Forsyth's cause that these three players have yet to play each other and, while he is now unlikely to finish in the top two, the rest of his draw, with only Sherriff looming as a major obstacle, should see him through to the last four.
Despite the loss to Said, team coach Dave Edwards believed it was full of plenty of positives and in his afternoon game Forsyth was untroubled in beating Wales' Mike Prosser 21-7.
"We're not too despondent," Edwards said, pointing out that Forsyth had shown determination in battling back from a 16-6 deficit to draw level at 17-17.
"He wasn't drawing well early but he did fight back and it was a great effort to come from so far down."
Bester, who had the afternoon bye, is fast confirming himself as the gold medal favourite. He had a 21-5 win over Papua-New Guinea's Peter Juni.
New Zealand's women's line-ups were in excellent touch yesterday, and Jo Edwards and Val Smith in the pairs and the Sharon Sims-skipped triple remain unbeaten after five rounds.
Edwards and Smith, though, are in a tough section and have still to play Australia's Lyndsay Armitage and Karen Murphy and England's Ellen Falkner and Wendy King, who are also undefeated. Falkner and King had little bother yesterday crushing Ireland's multiple world champion Margaret Johnston and her lead, Bernie O'Neill, 28-11.
The triple had a 51-6 win over Argentina, but Sims was probably more delighted with the 17-8 win in the morning against England.