Sue Burnand's composite team had a bumpy start to the defence of the national women's fours title it won in Dunedin last year.
The star-studded team of Black Jack Leanne Curry, Angela Boyd, Mandy Boyd and Burnand was lucky to win its first game against Lin East (Browns Bay) 16-15 at the national bowls championships in Auckland yesterday.
The women lost their next game against Avril Suter (Henderson) 15-13 and were in danger of not qualifying for post-section play.
The experienced combination sorted out their problems at a team discussion before their third game and played with more confidence to convincingly beat Heather Carter (Glendowie) 17-6.
Burnand's four must win two more games today to qualify for post-section play.
New singles champion Sandra Keith continued her impressive form and had three wins as skip of a composite team with Karolyn Boon, Raewyn Renall and Serena Matthews.
Three members of the team come from her Leeston club and Renall is from Pukekohe Cosmopolitan.
They beat Janice McLean (Kensington) 18-10, Elizabeth Teiti (Pt Chevalier) 16-11 and Julie Baker (Northcote) 19-15.
The Northland team of Sue Wightman, Linda Brockbank, former international Ann Muir and Ann Bateman also had three wins.
But it was not a good day for Outram's Sue Hodges, whose composite team of Hayley May (Victoria), Vicki Robinson (North East Valley) and Dale Lang (Johnsonville) lost all three games and is out of contention for a post-section spot.
It lost to Heather Piper (Te Atatu) 19-17, Cathy Andrews (Paritutu) 25-16 and Denise Samuel (New Lynn) 21-12.
Kay Hammond (North East Valley) remains in contention for a post-section spot after her team beat Gale Fache's composite team 19-11 in its first game.
But it lost its next two games and must win all three games today to qualify.
One upset defeat, with a fairytale tinge, has left Gary Lawson and his star-studded team teetering on elimination from the fours, The New Zealand Herald reports.
In the opening round of a cut-throat qualifying section at Takapuna, a composite four of mainly Northcote club bowlers, skipped by Shaun Bayne, beat Lawson and his all-New Zealand representative line-up of Danny Delany, Richard Girvan and Chris Le Lievre.
Then, in the third round, a Takapuna four skipped by Chris Taylor and with 93-year-old Eddie Earwaker as lead was 16-7 up with five ends to play, only to drop two fives and a three on the last four ends to lose 21-17.
But the upset to Bayne means Lawson will have to win at least two of his remaining qualifying games today to make post-section. That will not be a formality, as two of those will be against the strong line-ups of another Black Jack, Shannon McIlory, and the accomplished Peter Sain.
Lawson in particular was never happy in the opening game against Bayne.
"Bowls is bowls and these things happen," Bayne said.
"I've beaten Gary before, once in the Brown Bay pairs, but I've lost to him as well."
Left with three wins in the section were Sain, Browns Bay's Ian Pyke and a solid Taranaki four skipped by Dean Elgar.
Other leading sides starting well were those skipped by Ali Forsyth, who has come in as a replacement to play with pairs champion Blake Signal, Neville Hill, Ross Haresnape, Grant Goodwin, Tony Marinkovich and Wally Marsic.
