Clean sweep for bowlers

Defending champion Jo Edwards completed a good first day in the lawn bowls singles competition by beating Pau Blumsky of Niue 21-11 to keep her clean sheet for the tournament.

Earlier the New Zealander had to toil mightily to repel the challenge of the Indian Pinki, and only pulled away late in the piece to win 20-16.

Edwards spearheaded a top effort by the New Zealand bowlers, who were unbeaten throughout the day.

Edwards, a former world champion, led Blumsky 8-5 and then, after 15 ends, 12-9 before she applied the pressure and eased to victory.

“It was another grinding effort, but they’re the ones you have to win,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t win pretty, but I played my best bowls at the right time.”

The afternoon matches were disrupted by a torrential downpour, but Edwards, who these days lives in Brisbane, was philosophical.

“You can’t control it, so you just have to put up with it and not get too worried.”

When the singles draw was made, Edwards, a former world singles champion, looked to be facing a testing time. Certainly, Pinki pushed her hard, and it was still on a knife edge at 18-15, before Edwards’ calmness and quality got her home.

Though the greens were slower than they are used to, the New Zealanders seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.

The men’s four of Ali Forsyth (skip), Mike Nagy and Paul Girdler were never pressed in beating Singapore 28-6.

It was much tighter for the New Zealand mixed B2/B3 team of David Stallard, Peter Blick, Sue Curran and Ann Muir, who just got by Wales 14-11.

There was another relatively close one for the New Zealand women’s four of Tayla Bruce, Val Smith, Katelyn Inch and Mandy Boyd, who eventually beat Jersey 20-15.

In other results, the New Zealand men’s pair were too good for Botswana, winning 27-8, the New Zealand B7/B7/B8 triple beat Wales 26-5, and the New Zealand men’s pair beat Papua New Guinea 24-11.