Blackjacks Make Perfect Winning Start To World Bowls Championships Week 2

The New Zealand lawn bowls team - the ‘Blackjacks’ - have made a perfect start to the second week of competition at the World Bowls Championships in the Gold Coast, winning all 10 games contested today.

The team had a fantastic first week with Tayla Bruce crowned Singles Champion; Teri Blackbourn and Julie O’Connell won Gold at the first ever World Para Women’s Pairs event and Katelyn Inch, Val Smith, Selina Goddard and Leeane Poulson earned bronze in the Women’s Fours.

It’s the biggest World Bowls Championships in history, with 44 Countries competing at 13 greens spread over five different venues; all in the space of 12 days.

Week two sees the Men’s Singles, Men’s Fours, Women’s Pairs and Women’s Triples contested with finals to played this weekend.

All New Zealand teams have hit the ground running with the Blackjacks men’s singles player, Andrew Kelly winning both games today 21-17 and 21-14 against the Philippines and Czechia respectively.

The men’s fours team of Sheldon Bagrie-Howley, Lance Pascoe, Chris LeLievre and Tony Grantham recorded two comfortable wins against Switzerland and the Cook Islands.

The Commonwealth Games bronze medal Women’s Pairs combination of Katleyn Inch and Selina Goddard had a similarly convincing start to their campaign, defeating Papua New Guinea, but were pushed to the wire to beat Ireland by a single point. They rounded off the day with a comfortable win against Niue, to be on course to qualify for the medal playoffs.

The women’s triples team of Val Smith, Tayla Bruce and Leeane Poulson started with a comfortable win against the Cook Islands but faced tighter battle against a determined Japanese team winning 21-17, before completing the day impressively over Zimbabwe.

The Triples team, that includes two world singles champions in Smith (2008) and the weekend winner Bruce, has made a strong start towards qualifying for the medal playoffs.

The coming days will see the remainder of the qualifying games, with all qualifiers in the men’s fours, women’s pairs and women’s triples decided by Thursday and the singles by Friday.

Bite Sized Information Below:

Men’s Singles (Andrew Kelly)

Won 21-17 vs Philippines

Won 21 –14 Vs Czechia

Men’s Fours (Sheldon Bagrie-Howley, Lance Pascoe, Chris LeLievre, Tony Grantham)

Won 27-6 vs Switzerland

Won 17-9 vs Cook Islands

Women’s Pairs (Katelyn Inch, Selina Goddard)

Won 37-4 vs Papua New Guinea

Won 16-15 vs Ireland

Won 31-4 vs Niue

Women’s Triples (Val Smith, Tayla Bruce, Leeane Poulson)

Won 20-8 vs Cook Islands

Won 21-17 vs Japan

Won 21-12 vs Zimbabwe

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