Former Commonwealth Games champion Marie Watson is poised to win her seventh New Zealand open title at Christchurch today.
Watson is the lead for the star-studded Nelson composite team that includes 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sharyn Renshaw (Australia) and 2008 World Bowls gold medallists Val Smith and Jo Edwards.
It is 13 years since Watson won her sixth open title in the singles at Tauranga in 2003.
Her first was in the pairs in 1987.
She started her bowls with the Linwood club in Christchurch and shifted to Nelson in 1998.
Her crowning achievement was to win the pairs gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games with Judy Howat.
Watson has proved at Christchurch this week that she has regained her old spark and has outplayed most opponents with her lead bowls.
It will not be an easy task for the Nelson composite team to win the title this morning because the four against them comprises all four pairs finalists from this week's championships.
The composite team is skipped by Black Jack Mandy Boyd, who won the pairs title with her sister Angela.
The other two spots in the team are filled by the Wellington mother-and-daughter combination of Leigh and Kristen Griffin, who finished runner-up in the pairs.
Both teams had comfortable wins in the semifinals, with the Nelson team beating Nicole Toomey's Wellington-based composite four 22-9.
Edwards jumped to an early 9-3 lead after six ends and was in front 15-9 after 13 of the 18 ends. Boyd was just as dominant when her team outclassed Alison Rennie's Composite four 22-12.
The big upset of the day came in the quarterfinals of the men's fours when the unheralded Canterbury composite team of Lionel Shaw, Mark Lewis, Terry Stewart and Murray Shaw beat former world champion Peter Belliss's composite four 18-13.
The team - Belliss, Black Jack Richard Girvan, Lance Tasker and Danny O'Connor - was expected to retain the title it won at Auckland last year.
But Lionel Shaw (63), a retired coal miner from Westport, had other ideas.
Shaw has been playing bowls for 18 years but this was the first time he has played in the national championships.
The Shaw side rattled the Belliss combination from the start and led 9-2 after six of the 18 ends, 13-4 after 10 and 17-4 after 13 ends.
Belliss narrowed the gap in the final ends but it was too little, too late.
Shaw reached the final by beating the Leeston-based composite team of Kevin Greenwood, Paul Matheson, Eddie Simpson and Darryl Hawker 18-13 in the semifinal.
In another quarterfinal, the Kaiapoi-based composite team of Tony Andrews, Kerry Becks, Darren Redway and Paddy Stewart beat the composite team skipped by Black Jack Andrew Kelly 19-12.
The other members of the team were Black Jack Blake Signal, North East Valley's Andy McLean and Cameron Nairne.
McLean was the last Dunedin player surviving in the fours - meaning that Otago has no-one in today's fours final.
The Kaiapoi-based team reached today's final by beating Lance Pascoe's Belfast-based composite four 21-16 in the semifinal.
NZ Bowls fours finals
Christchurch, 10am today
● Jo Edwards, Val Smith, Sharyn Renshaw, Marie Watson (composite) v Mandy Boyd, Kirsten Griffin, Leigh Griffin, Angela Boyd (composite).
● Tony Andrews, Kerry Becks, Darren Redway, Paddy Stewart (composite) v Lionel Shaw, Mark Lewis, Terry Stewart and Murray Shaw (composite).
