They are the two best female bowlers in the world. Murphy has won three World Bowls titles and Edwards two.
Murphy (41), the defending champion, won the singles gold medal at Adelaide in 2012 and was in the winning Australian triples team. She skipped the winning four at Christchurch in 2008.
Edwards (46), New Zealand’s best gold medal prospect, won the pairs title with Sharon Sims in 2004 and Val Smith four years later. Her partner this year is Angela Boyd.
They will be pitted against Murphy, and Kelsey Cottrell (26), who was in the winning Australian pair four years ago.
Edwards has played 493 tests for the Black Jacks and is the most capped female bowler in New Zealand. Murphy has played 542 internationals for Australia.
Edwards has proved she has the temperament to succeed in the international arena. She has won four world indoor titles, the world champion of champion’s singles in 2011 and the Commonwealth Games singles gold medal at Glasgow in 2014.
Other contenders in the women’s singles include Amalia Matali (Brunei Darussalam), who finished runner-up to Australian Natasha Scott in this year’s world champion of champion’s singles, and Carmen Anderson (Norfolk Island) who won the World Bowls title in 1996.
The defending men’s champions are the Scottish pair of Alex Marshall and Paul Foster. Marshall also won the pairs in 1992 and 2000 and the fours in 1992.
Gary Lawson and Russell Meyer won the pairs title for the Black Jacks in 2008. Shannon McIlroy and Dunedin’s Mike Kernaghan will be attempting to emulate their deeds.
The other top pairs combinations will be Brett Wilkie and Aaron Wilson (Australia) and Canada’s Ryan Bester and Stevan Santana.
Bester, who won the pairs title in 2004, will be the Canadian singles player.
McIlroy, the New Zealand champion, is a top prospect to win the singles gold medal. His main opposition will come from Aron Sherriff (Australia), who won the Asia and Pacific title at Christchurch last December.
Other contenders include Darren Burnett (Scotland), Jon Tomlinson (Wales), who was runner-up in the world champion of champions singles, and Mohammad Soufi Rusti (Malaysia). Burnett won a gold medal in the triples in 2012.
The men’s world championships was first held in Sydney in 1966. The women’s championships started in 1969.
Australia tops the gold medal table with 18 titles — six men and 12 women — followed by New Zealand 16, Scotland 13, England and Ireland 12 and South Africa 10. The Black Jacks have won nine women’s and seven men’s titles. Australia tops the overall medal count with 58, followed by England 48, New Zealand 45, Scotland 40, South Africa 29, Wales 24, Ireland 23, Canada 13, Hong Kong 9 and Fiji 8.
Thirty-two countries will attend the championship, which starts in Christchurch next Tuesday and ends on December 11.
Former international Terry Scott will be a commentator when the finals are broadcast live on Sky Television on December 3- 4 and December 10-11.
Fact File
World Bowls 2016
Venue: Christchurch.
Dates: Nov 29 to Dec 11.
Number of countries: 32.
Finals: Dec 3, women’s fours (9am), men’s triples (1pm). Dec 4, men’s pairs (9am), women’s singles (1pm). Dec 10, women’s triples (9am), men’s fours (1pm). Dec 11, women’s pairs (9am), men’s singles (1pm).
NZ team
Men: Shannon McIlroy (singles), McIlroy, Mike Kernaghan (pairs), Mike Nagy, Blake Signal, Ali Forsyth (triples), Nagy, Kernaghan, Signal, Forsyth (fours).
Women: Jo Edwards (singles), Edwards, Angela Boyd (pairs), Katelyn Inch, Val Smith, Kirsten Edwards (triples), Inch, Kirsten Edwards, Smith, Boyd (fours).
