The chief executive of the Otago and Southland Cancer Society was called out of bed in the early hours of Thursday morning after a bid was made to steal a donation box at the society's premises in Great King St.
This did not affect his bowls on the first day of the 22nd annual Speight's Invitation singles when he won his first two games.
In the first round Kernaghan demonstrated that he is still a class player by beating Black Jacks World Bowls singles player Shannon McIlroy (Nelson) in a close game, 25-23.
McIlroy, the TAB favourite, won the event in 2006 and 2008.
In the second round, Kernaghan also had to work hard to beat Craig Gush (Manawatu) 25-21.
Kernaghan won a bronze medal in the singles at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
McIlroy returned to his best form in the second round when he beat Bruce Dunn (North East Valley) 25-9.
The top-ranked Professional Bowls Association player, Ken Walker (Dunedin), had an easy first-round win against Dave Thomas (North East Valley) 25-11, and beat 2010 Speight's Invitation winner Justin Goodwin (Auckland) 25-20 in the second round.
Walker won the PBA transtasman singles title in Australia when he beat Kelvin Kerkow (Australia) in May.
The promising Scott Cottrell (Auckland) beat New Zealand representative Shaun Scott (North East Valley) 25-19.
Last year's winner, Tony Grantham (Auckland), showed he was on track for World Bowls by winning both his games.
He beat tenacious Alexandra bowler Bill Clements 25-21 in a close first game and then beat fellow Aucklander Chris Lelievre 25-18 in his second game.
Sydney-based World Bowls player Ali Forsyth had to fight hard to beat the promising North East Valley player Kelvin Budge (North East Valley) 25-22.
Play was disrupted several times when southerly squalls caused the bowlers to run off the green.
Section play continues at the North East Valley greens today and post-section play is expected to start tomorrow at 2pm.
