It was the North Island's night, as it outclassed Otago 36-12 in the first match of its South Island tour.
The score at the Dunedin indoor bowls stadium on Friday night favoured the North Island by a big margin, but the number of ends won gave a better indication of the closeness of many of the games.
The North Island won 116 ends to Otago's 98.
The only Otago team to beat its North Island opponent was the women's four of Ann Cottrell, Marilyn Irvine, Shirley Ruthven and Jenny Cowan, which beat Jenny Stockford, Denise Clarkson, Gina Owen and Lorraine Phipps.
The first game was drawn 4-4 but the Otago four was on top after that and won the next two games 8-2 and 8-1.
It was the women's teams that did best for Otago.
The triples team of Lyn Rance, June Pickles, Lynn Baird drew with the North Island combination of Fiona Wilson, Elizabeth Morrow and Maureen Pruden 6-6, 5-8, 7-6.
Rance is also a talented outdoor bowler with big bowls and has won more than 15 Bowls Dunedin titles.
The North Island had comfortable wins in the other two women's events.
Teri Anderson (Auckland) outplayed Marilyn Holmes 15-7, 13-8 and 11-7.
Anderson (18) is one of the most promising bowlers in the country and has already won two national senior titles and the national secondary schools singles title twice.
She demonstrated her class against Holmes, who is Otago's best singles player.
The North Island pair of Linda McCurdy and Sheree Holmes beat Ann Gawn and Amanda Katipa 10-8, 14-4, 9-7.
The North Island men's team made a clean sweep of the men's events.
The closest game was in the fours, where the North Island team of Grant Harvey, Robert Lochrie, Mike Phipps, Tim Veale beat David Webb, Robert Cowan, Adam Williams, Nick Sinclair 6-2, 3-4. 7-4.
After playing against South Island provincial teams this week, the North Island will meet the South Island in the inter-island match for the Kevin Eddy Memorial Trophy, to be played at Ashburton on Saturday.
