There will be a significant change of structure at this year's World Bowls in Christchurch.
"The big difference is that a country can elect to qualify in all disciplines or choose fewer events,'' Bowls New Zealand chief executive Kerry Clark told the Otago Daily Times.
Both men and women compete in four disciplines: singles, pairs, triples and fours.
Up until the last World Bowls event at Adelaide in 2012, countries had to qualify in all disciplines.
But as a result of the review after the 2012 event a significant change has been made for this year's event at Christchurch.
It was decided that only two countries would automatically qualify in all disciplines - the host country (New Zealand) and the winner of the team's event in 2012 (Australia).
"There were two qualifying events and all other countries had to qualify at the Asia and Pacific championships at Christchurch or the Atlantic championships at Cyprus,'' Clark said.
There were 10 qualifiers from each of these events.
"There are 20 countries competing in each discipline but there are 32 countries contesting the championships. At Christchurch in 2008, 28 countries competed.''
Otago top in south
Otago won the Southern Region's indoor bowls women's eights at Balclutha last month with 124 points from South Otago 110.5, Southland 105.5, South Canterbury 86, North Otago 65.5 and Central Otago 48.5.
The player of the tournament was Shirley Ruthven (Otago) with 24 points.
She was followed by Jean Strafford (Southland) and Stephne Joyce (Otago) 23, the South Otago pair of Alana Preddy and Marilyn Paterson and Otago's Amanda Katipa and Raewyn Keighley, 22.
Southland beat South Otago 137 to 88 in the representative match at Invercargill.
The best players for South Otago were Shona Preddy with four wins and two draws and Biddy Craig with three wins and three draws.
South Otago B beat Eastern Southland 33-31 at Clinton.
The best players for South Otago were Tony Chittock and Don Jenks, who were unbeaten with four wins.
Six of the best
Preddy (Paretai) won her sixth South Otago indoor title when she and Biddy Craig (Waitepeka) beat Eileen and David Grant (Lawrence) 7-5 on the extra end in the pairs.
It was the third title for Craig.
In the mixed fours Chris Moffitt, Alanna Preddy, Graeme Hislop and Jaime McElrea, (Paretai) beat club mates Stephen Preddy, Craig, Craig Botting and Shona Preddy 11-10 to qualify for the regional final in Alexandra on July 2.
Daniel Cook (Hillend) won his third successive South Otago junior singles title to qualify for the national final at Wellington on August 27.
French flying
Daniel French (Green Island) has made a flying start to the indoor bowls season in Dunedin and has won two centre titles, and the mixed pairs and fours that do not count as centre titles.
He has now won 19 Otago titles and sits third on the all time list.
His clubmate Lyn Rance won her 19th title in the Otago fours and is the top woman on the titles list.
French beat Hugh Bosman (Hillhead) 14-5 to win the Otago singles and skipped the Green Island team that won the Otago fours, mixed pairs with Stephne Joyce and the mixed fours with Brent Sinclair, Lyn Rance and Margaret Rout.
Brent Sinclair added an extra title in the open fours and now has 12 titles.
His brother Daniel won his sixth title in the open fours.
The Green Island teams will contest the regional mixed pairs and fours finals at Alexandra on July 2-3.
Gary Flewitt, who won his last title in 2009, heads the list of Otago champions with 32 titles and is followed by Bob Cowan 23, Kevin Darling 20, Daniel French, Lyn Rance, Barry Cadogan 19, Mark Cowan, Trevor Gould 18, Carolyn Crawford, Ross Garner, Ray Webster 15.
Third title for pair
The North Otago champion of champion pairs was won by Cliff Ormandy and Andrew Robb (Eveline) who beat Wally Strachan and Doreen Mavor (Awamoko) 11-10.
It was the third centre title for Ormandy and the 11th for Robb.
The New Zealand mixed fours qualifying event was won by Bede Mallon, Norm Robertson, Bev Robertson and Rhonda Sinclair (Oamaru). Mike Howard and Rhonda Lockerbie (Oamaru) won the mixed pairs.
Three generations of the Robb family from the Eveline club clashed in the final of the triples this month. Gordon Robb, Diana McGregor and Emma Robb beat Andrew Robb, Ron Gardner and Paul Addison 7-2.
PBA rankings
The New Zealand PBA ranking list after the Queen's Birthday weekend events is: Murray Glassey (Hawkes Bay) 328 points, Craig Merrilees (Southland) 242, Rob Ashton (Auckland) 240, Andrew Kelly (Canterbury) 223, Shane Elliott (Southland) 212, Oliver Mason (Dunedin) 204, Paul Sorensen (Hawkes Bay) 204, Bart Robertson (North Harbour) 198, Duane White (Dunedin) 188, Sheldon Bagrie-Howley (Southland) 182, Richard Corry (Wellington) 180, Dean Drummond (Hawke's Bay) 168, Aaron Tribe (Southland) 164, Andy McLean (Dunedin) 162, Ken Walker (Dunedin) 161, Ray Webster (Dunedin) 161.
Ross Stevens (St Clair) beat Paul King (Andersons Bay) 6-8, 9-4, 2-0 in the final of the PBA ranking singles in Dunedin.
Stevens is the leading "rookie'' in the PBA after the first of three rounds of regional events this winter.
Dunedin's Elliott Mason topped the PBA "rookie'' list in 2014 and his brother Oliver last year.
Hendry steps down
Bruce Hendry has retired after 12 years as secretary of the Westpac Bowls Stadium and has been replaced by Michael Ayres.
Daphne Hynes was elected a life member at the annual meeting last week.
Ken Walker and Karl Mason won the Stadium pairs when they beat Steve Wilson and Andrew Calendar 15-5 last weekend and Lee Grigg beat Malia Tavite 19-12 in the women's singles.
Titles shared around
A club record was set in the Alexandra club last season, when six bowlers won their first senior club title: Judith Clark, Evelyn Martyn, Roger O'Brien, Gordan Randle, Bill Belt and Sam Smith.
