The women stepped up for the New Zealand bowls team, with fighting victories for the triple and the pair.
The women’s pair of Selina Goddard and Katelyn Inch began the day by outplaying South Africa 19-10.
They returned to the green immediately and edged out Niue 19-16, their third straight win. It was a tight one though – the scores were 6-6 after six ends, 10-10 after 12 ends and 15-15 after 16 ends. The New Zealanders scored four on the 18th end and that was enough to turn the match their way. They now progress to post-section play s top qualifiers from their group.
The women’s triple of Val Smith, Tayla Bruce, Nicole Toomey, not surprisingly looking extremely comfortable with each other after having already gone through the fours event, had a really tough match with England.
The New Zealanders trailed all the way until the 14th end, but were rewarded for their perseverance and skill under pressure and eked out a much-needed victory. Having suffered a loss the previous day the New Zealanders had to win and now go through to post-section play on a goals for and against ratio.
In the men’s singles, Shannon McIlroy went down 21-19 to Ross Davis of Jersey.
McIlroy may regard it as a victory squandered, even though it was a great match. It was 5-5 after eight ends, 18-18 after 28 and 19-19 going into the 31st and final end. Davis scored a two to seal his victory.
The New Zealand men’s four of Tony Grantham, Andrew Kelly, Mike Galloway and Ali Forsyth also lost a heart-breaker when they were squeezed out 14-13 by South Africa after fighting back from a 14-9 deficit.
The para mixed pair of Gerald Brouwers and Sue Curran, who have struggled for wins in this tournament, found England too precise and went down 19-8.