World champ Smith ousted from bowls nationals

Double world champion Val Smith's forlorn national bowls championship campaign hit another impasse when she was eliminated from the pair's competition in Wellington today.

Needing to win each of her three games on day two of qualifying, Smith and her partner Kay Hammond stumbled at the first hurdle.

Smith, who also missed the cut in the singles format, was philosophical after a second setback.

"At the end of the day I can only blame my form, I just simply didn't play well enough," she said.

"I think the thing that has bothered me the most is expectation. Once you get to the top level, people are always expecting of you, but there is only one way you can go when your up that high and that's down."

While Smith succumbed, title favourites Jan and Marina Khan progressed with ease, as did mother and daughter combination Leigh and Kirsten Griffin.

New Zealand under-25 representative Mandy Boyd and her sister Angela Boyd also displayed good form.

Some big names will also be missing from post-section play in the men's singles - Phil Skoglund missed the cut along with former New Zealand representative Sean O'Neill.

Australian based New Zealand represetatives Richard Girvan and Ali Forsyth both progressed despite both dropping games to Wellingtonian Richard Corry, who was in outstanding form in trying conditions. Ryan Bester also eased through, as did Andrew Kelly, Dwayne Cameron, Shannon McIlroy, Danny Delany, Peter Belliss and defending champion Richard Collett.

The men's pairs and women's singles post-section play starts tomorrow.

- NZPA