Two strong composite teams are expected to dominate the 55th annual Festival Fours bowls tournament which starts in Dunedin today.
The Dunedin-based team of Josh Freeman, Robbie Thomson, Bruce Malcolm and skip Blair Barringer is full of centre representatives.
The best known is Malcolm, a former New Zealand selector, who won the New Zealand pairs title with Gordon Duggie in 1990.
He is a former winner of the Festival Fours.
Thomson, the president of Bowls Dunedin, has made his mark in the Professional Bowls Association and has competed internationally in world PBA finals.
Taieri's Alistair Keith, a tenacious skip, heads a multi-centre team with Canterbury representative Alvin Gardiner and the Hokonui pair of Andrew and Jack McGregor, who have both represented Southland.
Other representative players included in the field of 36 teams are Bruce Kelly (Oamaru), Kerry Becks (Canterbury) and Paul McKinnell (Southland).
Kelly, the father of the promising New Zealand squad member Andrew Kelly, is bringing the North Otago fours team with him.
Another strong contender is the Kaikorai team of Mike Cranstoun, Danny O'Leary, Peter Wilson and Graham Allan, which won the event in 2006.
Last year's winner Denis Sharp (Forbury Park) is back, but with a different team.
The Drummond club, which has been loyal to the event since the 1950s, consists of retired sheep farmers who have always enjoyed a break from the farm after the busy summer.
They have entered two teams this year under skips Jack Cowie and Lindsay McDonald.
The chairman of the organising committee for the Kaikorai club is Pat O'Dea, who told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the club shifted the event to early January to increase numbers.
"We have eight more teams than last year and this has bucked the downward trend in numbers that most events are experiencing," O'Dea said.
The Festival Fours has also been reduced from five days to three.
It starts today and the final will be held on the Kaikorai green on Wednesday afternoon.
The first two days will consist of round-robin section play, with games restricted to 2hr 15min.
The top 12 teams will qualify for the main event, the next 12 for the plate and the bottom 12 teams the consolation event.
Post-section play will be restricted to two hours with the winning team playing four games.
The tournament was first held in 1953, when it was bowls' contribution to Dunedin's annual festival week.
It was organised by the Kaituna Bowling Club for 50 years and has been run by the Kaikorai club for the last five years.
Three clubs will host the event with the headquarters green at Kaikorai.
The other clubs being used are Wakari and Green Island.
