The New Zealand indoor bowls team — dubbed the Mat Blacks — will be hoping to steal the title when they come up against Australia in the biannual transtasman test starting in Port Sorell today.
New Zealand have recorded 19 wins and just six losses since 1975.
But Australia won the match at the last edition in 2024 in Pukekohe — their first victory since 2009 and first on New Zealand soil since 1991.
Fourteen players will represent each country across the three-day competition, featuring 11 events across men’s and women’s and mixed grades.
Alana Moffitt (South Otago) and Keri Te Tamaki (Otago) are in the women’s pairs and join Sheree Holmes (Upper Hutt Valley) and Jenelle Lockyer (South Canterbury) in the fours.
Daniel French (Otago) lines up alongside Gary Low (Southland) and Paul Wright (Auckland) in the men’s triples.
Nathan Trowell (Auckland) will join the trio in the men’s fours and links up with Alex Reed (Waikato) in the pairs.
Annelies Baker (Waikato) and Marcus Trlin (Hutt Valley) will compete in the singles and Baker and Lockyer join Kylie Gould (Canterbury) in the women’s triples.
Simon Thomas (Canterbury) — who captains the Mat Blacks — Reed, Gould and Denise Clarkson (Hutt Valley) will play in the mixed fours, Trlin and Clarkson are in the mixed six bowls pairs and Thomas and Holmes are in the mixed eight bowls pairs.
The competition finishes on Saturday. — Allied Media
