There could be a female takeover of PBA bowls in Dunedin this year, with 11 women entered for the annual Shanghai tournament at the Westpac Bowls Stadium today.
A young player to watch is Rebecca Jelley (North East Valley), who reached the final 16 in the singles at the national championships in Auckland in January.
Jelley is one of the most promising bowlers in the country and has the ability to nut out the best approach to win the Shanghai event.
Three of the big guns of Dunedin women's bowls - Sue Hodges (Outram), Carolyn Crawford (St Clair) and Beth Brown (Taieri) - are also in the field at the indoor stadium today.
Hodges was named the Dunedin women's bowler of the year after last season and Crawford won the same award two years ago.
The other women in the 48-strong field are Barbra Walker (Fairfield), Trish Marr (St Clair), Jean Young (Taieri), Sue Smeaton (Taieri), Maree Jones (Waverley, Southland), Nicky Roker (Andersons Bay) and Pam Walker (Taieri).
There will also be a youthful attack on the prize. The 17-year-old Mason twins - Oliver and Elliott - from the Forbury Park club, are likely to upset the applecart.
The two favourites are Ken Walker (Fairfield) and Mark Watt (North East Valley).
Walker is ranked fourth in the New Zealand PBA rankings and Watt sixth.
Walker has retained his spot in the New Zealand team to play Australia at Tweed Heads in the transtasman test series from July 27-29.
The other members of the New Zealand team are Chris Lourie (Waikato), Jamie Hill (Auckland), Murray Glassey (Hawkes Bay) and Raika Gregory (Waikato).
The Shanghai bowls tournament, a quick-fire shorter version of the game, was invented by Walker, who hopes it will become the bowls equivalent of twenty/20 cricket.
Three players are on the mat together in a singles match and six points are available on each end. The closest bowl gets three points, the second bowl two and the third-closest bowl one point.
The first player to 31 points wins the game.
It is a time limit game that lasts just 1hr 15min. A Shanghai is when a player scores the maximum of six points on a single end.
A feature of the game is the joker that can be used once in a game by each player.
It must be called before the end starts and it doubles the points scored on an end by that player.
The Scottish International open singles qualifying tournament will be played in Dunedin tomorrow and the Ranking Pairs on Monday. Similar events will be held in Hamilton, Hastings and at the new indoor complex at the Waverley club in Invercargill.
The winners go on to the national finals weekend, in Dunedin, in September.
There are now four full-sized indoor bowls stadiums in the country, in Dunedin, Hamilton, Hastings and Invercargill.
The Waverley club is the first outdoor artificial green to become fully enclosed.
