Lawn bowls: Tricky adjustment for Delhi greens

New Zealand women's lawn bowler Jan Khan. Photo / Simon Baker

New Zealand's lawn bowlers will face a tricky transition in New Delhi as they look to prove that their results at the last Commonwealth Games were just a blip.

While New Zealand greens are the fastest in the world, the artificial surface at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is at the other end of the speed spectrum.

Ten of the 12-strong team played in the Eight Nations test event there in April and coach Dave Edwards says even Northern Hemisphere competitors were surprised at the sluggish pace.

"It's easier to go from slow to fast than the other way around, so for the likes of ourselves and Australia, who have fastish greens, the transition is quite big," he said.

Still, Edwards was confident that, with the New Zealanders having had some experience of the surface and the preparations they had put in, the playing conditions would not be an issue by the start of the tournament next Monday (October 4).

"It's not going to be a big surprise for us and we're not going to be using it as an excuse," he said.

"We've been aware of it for some time, we've been working on it and we're confident it won't be a problem."

The Games programme comprises six events - men's and women's singles, pairs and triples.

The New Zealand team features double world champion and world No 1 Val Smith in the women's singles, and former world champion and two-time Games medallist Jan Khan, who will skip her women's pair with Manu Timoti.

In 2006, Khan and sister Marina won bronze in the pair to bring home New Zealand's only bowls medal from Melbourne.

The men's contingent includes Andrew Todd and Richard Girvan, who were part of the world championship-winning four in Christchurch two years ago, and they will combine with the baby of side, 23-year-old Shannon McIlroy, in the triples.

Bowls has been responsible for 34 of New Zealand's Commonwealth medals since the first Games in 1930 and Edwards believed the present squad had a solid chance of increasing the tally by three in New Delhi.

"What colour they will be is anyone's guess," he said, adding that he didn't want to identify who the best chances were.

"We're confident in all six disciplines, but we feel we're capable of bring home three."

He admitted that the meagre haul last time around was a motivator.

"Some of the players who were in Melbourne have been re-selected for this event and they're all disappointed with only once medal," he said.

"But New Zealand bowls actually has such a fantastic record at the Commonwealth Games, so Melbourne was a bit of blip on the radar scrren."

The team's preparations for the heat of India has included camps in Fiji and Malaysia.

"One of the good things about being there in April was that the conditions then were more extreme than what they're anticipated to be during the Games," Edwards said.

Taking part in the Eight Nations also gave the bowlers a taste of the security operation.

"They put on the full works," Edwards said.

"We had the armed guards with us all the time we were there and we all felt relatively safe. Initially it was a bit scary seeing all these rifles around the place but we came home confident in the security as best we could."

- NZPA