The two New Zealand combinations beaten in the quarter-finals at the world bowls championships had no excuses for their defeats.
The Jo Edwards-skipped women's four of Sharon Sims, Jan and Marina Khan, stayed with the well drilled Australian line-up skipped by Karen Murphy for the first part of
the match, but were outplayed over the latter ends to lose 21-14.
And the men's triple of Richard Girvan, Ali Forsyth and Andrew Todd, despite battling for four hours and a quarter, crashed to Scotland 22-14.
Edwards confirmed that it had not been part of the four's plan to have drawn Australia so early and such has been the Australian edge in recent times it may have been something of a mental block. But she agreed the women Black Jacks had been authors of their own misfortune.
"We did it to ourselves by losing to the Philippines last night," she said. "But we decided that to be the best we had to play Australia sometime so why not knock them out in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be."
At two in the Scotland triple, who went on to also win their semifinal, was the renowned Willie Wood, who in his ninth world championship earned another international medal. The 69-year old was at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games in 1974 when two of his New Zealand opposition yesterday, Girvan and Forsyth, were not even born.
"We struggled to get a start," Girvan said. "They adapted to the conditions."
