This was no more apparent than on the artificial surface at the Mornington rink where the composite four of Sarah Scott, Bronwyn Stevens, Joanna Cooper and Blackjack Katelyn Inch had a scrap on their hands against Reen Stratford, Jill Fraser, Alison Rennie and Linda Ralph.
Both teams were undefeated at the Taieri rink on Monday and faced off against one another in the fourth round yesterday, in a match that brought about a nail-biting conclusion that put the Scott quartet through to the knockout stage.
A the end of the mandatory 18 ends, the teams were locked at 16-16 after Scott's four clawed its way back into the match from 15-9 down after 13 ends.
However, as the coin toss was made to play the extra end, the three-hour time limit was reached and both sides were playing the decider in what was effectively extra time.
Stratford's team made the best possible start when both lead bowls from Ralph were touchers and further pressure went on the Scott four when Rennie rested her first bowl alongside the jack and touched with the second.
But Scott - playing third with Inch skipping - stepped up to the plate unfazed.
Scott cleared the traffic around the head and Inch drew the shot with the team's penultimate bowl. Stratford went wide with her final bowl and Inch drew a second shot to decide the match 18-16.
For Dale Rayner's four of New Zealand development squad members Nicole Toomey, Rachael McDowall and Ashleigh Jeffcoat, the competition turned pearshaped when they were knocked out of the title race.
After winning their opening matches 22-4 and 22-12, they dropped their third match 20-9 to the Catherine Bien four in the final match on Monday at the Taieri greens and the losing streak continued yesterday at Mornington.
Up against the local knowledge of Maree Barclay, Gay Abernethy, Rhonda Thomson and Shelley Murphy, Rayner's four also went down when an extra end decided the match.
The teams had matched each other bowl for bowl throughout the 18 ends to finish locked up at 14-14. The second bowl from Abernethy at No3 proved the decider as it came to rest just in front of the jack.
Rayner's attempt at clearing went wide, allowing the southern underdogs to clinch the match 15-14.
''We were really playing for pride, and didn't expect this,'' Barclay said.
While it remained the only game the Barclay quartet won, the day went from bad to worse for the Rayner team as they dropped their next match against the Stratford four 28-8.
''That's the first time I haven't made it past qualifying in fours,'' Rayner, a semifinalist in fours last year, said.
With Scott heading section one undefeated, Stratford's fifth-round victory over Rayner secured a pathway through to post-section while locking Rayner out.
Those joining Scott to go through undefeated for the business end of the competition are the Mandy Boyd-skipped team, including sister Angela Boyd, Sheryl McLean and Leigh Griffin; Kelly McKerihen (Leanne Chinery, Natasha Russell and Jan Shirley); Anne Muir (Carolyn Crawford, Mary Ross, and Doreen Bell); Jo Edwards (Val Smith, Kirsten Edwards and Tayla Bruce).
Only three teams in the men's qualifying section have made it through undefeated.
The Mike Kernaghan-skipped team, which also includes fellow Blackjack Tony Grantham along with Ryan Burnett and Rory Soden have notched up impressive victories of 30-7, 17-8, 25-17, 23-4, 23-3 and 24-10 in playing all six rounds.
Two other teams remaining undefeated in qualifying are Joko Susilo's composite four and Teo Turua's Bridge Park four, but both decided to sit out two games as four wins from six games is enough to qualify.
Despite their first-round stumble, the star-studded four of Ali Forsyth, Gary Lawson, Shannon McIlroy and Justin Goodwin made it safely through, winning their next four games 17-13, 22-4, 17-9 and 19-18.
