It will be a who's who of New Zealand bowls in Dunedin over the next two weeks. Five of the best bowlers in the history of New Zealand bowls will be playing in the centennial national championships.
The elite players are Gary Lawson (Victoria), Peter Belliss (Aramoho), Shannon McIlroy (Stoke) and the Nelson United pair of Jo Edwards and Val Smith.
One of the best-known bowlers is Gary Lawson (Victoria), who will be seeking to topple the record of the legendary Nick Unkovich (Auckland), who won 10 New Zealand championship titles in his long career.
Lawson equalled Unkovich's record at Wellington in 2010 when he won the pairs with Black Jack Dan Delany.
He is playing in all three disciplines - singles, pairs and fours - and has a good chance of beating the record that he shares with Unkovich.
Lawson is playing with Delany in the fours this year and his team contains New Zealand's best bowler at present, Shannon McIlroy, and former Dunedin player Ben King.
In Dunedin in 1997, Lawson won the pairs and the fours titles.
Lawson has an outstanding international record and has won five medals at World Bowls.
He reached his peak in 2008 when he won gold medals in the pairs and the fours at World Bowls in Christchurch.
He won a silver in the triples in 2004 and bronze medals in the fours in 1996 and 2004.
Peter Belliss is New Zealand's most successful male international bowler, with three gold medals at World Bowls and two Commonwealth Games bronze medals.
Belliss won the singles in Aberdeen in 1984, the pairs in Auckland in 1988 and the triples in Johannesburg in 2000.
He has also been successful at New Zealand championships and won the singles and pairs at the Taieri club in 1992.
McIlroy won a bronze medal in the singles at World Bowls in Adelaide last year and is ranked fourth in the world in the latest World Bowls singles rankings.
He was in the winning fours team at the New Zealand championships in 2006 and has won a record three Speight's North East Valley singles titles.
Edwards is New Zealand's most successful international women's bowler and has won six world titles.
Edwards won the World Bowls pairs in 2004, retained the title in 2008, and won the silver medal last year.
She has won the World Cup singles title three times - in 2009, 2010 and 2012 - the world champion of champions singles in 2011 and the Commonwealth Games pairs in 2002.
When the national championships were last held in Dunedin, in 2011, Edwards won the singles and the pairs.
Edwards is ranked top on the World Bowls singles ranking list ahead of Karen Murphy (Australia). Val Smith is ranked fourth and her Black Jacks team-mate Sandra Keith (Dunsandel) is seventh-equal.
Smith has won three New Zealand titles: the pairs in 2003 and 2011 and the fours in 2010.
She has an outstanding international record and won gold medals in the singles and pairs at World Bowls in Christchurch in 2008.
Smith also won a silver medal in the singles at World Bowls in 2012 and silver in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The New Zealand team - five men and five women - for the Trans Tasman event against Australia will be named soon after the championships.
''That would be an indication that those players have the inside running for the Commonwealth Games,'' national selector Terry Scott said.
''There is also some domestic play before the Trans Tasman that needs to be taken into account.''
An under-18 and a development team under-25 will also be selected to play Australia. Two of the five players can be over the age of 25.
