Bowls: Unfinished business for Dunedin pair

Ken Walker (Fairfield) and Terry Scott (North East Valley) are the best two bowlers on the Dunedin domestic stage but they have unfinished business on the national scene.

Walker has won 31 Dunedin titles and Scott 33. They have both won two New Zealand championship titles but still need one more title in the pairs to complete their set.

Walker won the singles in 1987 and the fours in 1983. He came close to a second singles title when beaten by World Bowls fours gold medallist Andrew Todd (Cabramatta) in 2010.

Scott was second in Kerry Clark's winning North East Valley four in 1977 and won the singles in Christchurch in 1990. He was runner-up to Mike Kernaghan in the singles in Dunedin in 2002.

Walker represented New Zealand at World Bowls in 1992 and has become the best entertainer on the green at the national championships.

Walker knows how to play to the crowd and this often puts off less experienced opponents. He has a fierce drive and always plays attacking bowls.

Walker is teamed with New Zealand development squad member Mark Watt (North East Valley) in the pairs at the national championships in Taranaki. They are joined by Laurie Guy (Victoria) and Kelvin Budge (North East Valley) in the fours.

Scott is teamed with brother Jim in the pairs. Jim won silver medals at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and at the 1984 World Bowls. He won the singles at the national championships in 1982 and skipped the winning Johnsonville club four.

The Scotts are joined by two more family members in the fours. Judge Stephen O'Driscoll is lead and 2011 singles champion Shaun Scott will skip the team.

Alexandra bowler Pat Houlahan made his international debut at the seventh Asia-Pacific championships in Kuala Lumpur in October.

He is playing with Barrie Andrews (West End, Timaru) in the pairs. They will be a formidable combination because Andrews has already won a national title, in Sean O'Neill's composite four in Dunedin in 2007.

They are joined in the fours by Alister Watson (Clyde) and Brent Hickey (Alexandra).

Otago's best prospect in the women's events is Rebecca Jelly (North East Valley), who reached the last 16 in the singles last season. She is joined by Kaaren Guilford (Johnsonville) in the pairs.

Other Otago bowlers competing at the championships are the mother and daughter combination of Donna and Sarah Scott (North East Valley), the Forbury Park pair of Malia Tavite and Carolyn West, the Bannockburn four of Murray Guise, Kerry Parker, Ken Patterson and Grahame Stack, and Bob McAuley (Kaitangata).