Bowlers show encouraging form

Reaching the business end of their events, New Zealand bowlers producced some encouraging results today.

Mark Noble and Kurt Smith faced Singapore in the men's para pairs B6-B8, and took immediate control of the match. The New Zealaders raced through the first set 7-2, but fell away dramatically in the second set, losing it 9-1. The New Zealanders were mighty relieved to win the deciding tiebreaker 1-0.

Noble and Smith have now played four matches and all have been decided by tiebreakers. They've won three of them.

The men's pair of Ali Forsyth and Tony Grantham won a really testing battle against Pakistan 3-2, 5-4. They had to come from 4-2 down in the first set to seal it on the final end and the second set was tight all the way.

Forsyth and Grantham are now placed second in their group with three wins from four matches. Ireland lead with wins in all four matches. Only the winners of the group progress to the semi-finals, and there is one more round to play.

Tayla Bruce had two matches today and returned to more like her best form in sweeping aside Nuie bowler Catherine Papani 13-3, 9-5 in the women's singles. She returned later in the day to beat Ali Merrien of Guernsey 8-3, 7-3.

Bruce, one of the big figures in the women's singles, started the tournament poorly with two losses, but moved up the placings in her group by winning her last three matches. Though she didn't qualify for the semi-finals, it was good that she at least finished second in her group and was able to reveal some of the form that has made her a singles world champion. Ironically, the winner of her group was Merrien, whom she beat with relative ease today.