Commonwealth Games: Silver for Smith in bowls final

New Zealander Val Smith couldn't quite complete the miracle comeback and was left with a silver medal, after losing the Commonwealth Games women's singles bowls final in New Delhi.

Afterwards, the world champion was full of praise for a top performance by young English opponent Natalie Melmore, who beat her 7-6 11-2 to claim gold in her first senior international outing.

"She's a class act," a gracious Smith said.

"She has played very well throughout the tournament and she got it together today."

Melmore, a 21-year-old law student from Devon, repeatedly pulled out superb shots at decisive moments to frustrate Smith.

And often when the Nelson bowler did produce some fine play herself, she found things didn't run her way.

"I hit the target a couple of times with no result, but that's the game," she said.

"Some days they go with you, some days they don't."

Even the rink allocation didn't favour Smith.

Melmore's semifinal was televised and, because the final also had to be televised, she got to stay on the same rink.

While Smith said that would have been an advantage, she didn't want to make an issue of it.

A silver still signified a remarkable turnaround for the world No 1, who had looked to be down and out midway through section play earlier this week.

She then went on a six-match winning streak that took her from second bottom in her section to the gold-medal match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex.

"I'm pretty happy," she said.

"Overall I've got to be happy."

In her semifinal, Smith, 45, had faced another youngster in 21-year-old Australian Kelsey Cottrell, the world No 5, whom she beat 9-7 4-8 4-3.

Cottrell went on to claim bronze by downing Siti Zalina Ahmad of Malaysia.

Smith's medal was the only one gained by the 12-strong bowls team.

The closest they got in the five other events was in the men's singles and the women's pair, where Ali Forsyth, and Jan Khan and Manu Timoti respectively made it to one match of a semifinal.

Four years ago in Melbourne, New Zealand also took away just one bowls medal, a bronze in the women's pairs to Khan and sister Marina.

The target going into New Delhi had been three medals and team manager Dave Edwards described the final haul as "very, very, very disappointing" and "mystifying".

"We have no idea why," he said.

"We had a fantastic plan. We executed the plan well. Our build-up was sensationally good and it was just an on-the-day thing. The form was not there and we will debrief it big time."

Edwards said the players were the ones who were most disappointed.

"They know they did not play as well as they can."