Women's four into bowls semis

The slick New Zealand women’s four maintained their unbeaten record at the bowls when they beat Botswana in their quarter-final match-up.

The New Zealanders  – Val Smith, Tayla Bruce, Nicole Toomey and Selina Goddard – led all the way and probably won more comfortably than the final score of 17-13 indicated. Their semi-final opponents will be India.

So far in Birmingham, the New Zealand four have beaten Wales 18-12, Niue 29-3, drawn with South Africa 14-14 and now beaten Botswana.

In the semi-finals they meet India, who had an early loss to England in the tournament.

New Zealand singles representative Katelyn Inch lost a close battle to Lucy Beere of Guernsey in her quarter-final going down 21-16. 

Earlier in the day Inch, who has had some almighty tussles in this tournament, lost to Siti Ahman of Malaysia 21-20 on the 27th end.

The New Zealander led 11-1, was caught at 16-16 and then trailed 16-20, before scores drew level again at 20-20. 

The men’s pair of Tony Grantham and Shannon McIlroy missed out on post-section play when they lost to Scotland 15-11.

In the para men’s pair, Mark Noble and Graham Skellern’s went down heavily to Scotland, but will have the chance to atone for their 25-5 defeat when they meet the same team in the semi-finals. 

The women’s para pair of Lynda Bennett and Pam Walker went down 25-8, which ended their involved in the tournament as well.

The para mixed pair competition got under way with New Zealand – Gerald Brouwers, Kand Sue Curran – going down 25-9 to  Australia.