The bowls are rolling

PORT MORESBY – Players from six countries will take to the greens at Bisini Grounds in Port Moresby this week to compete in the lawn bowls competition at the 2015 Pacific Games.

Competition should be very even, with the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Norfolk Island, Tonga and Papua New Guinea rolling for the eight gold medals on offer, four in men’s play and four in women’s.

The last time lawn bowls was included in the South Pacific or Pacific Games competition programme was in 2007 – so sports writers have had to go back into history to look for angles in the preview articles.

One of the highlights of the 2007 Games came when Tokelau won its first gold medals in Games history – in the women’s singles, women’s pairs and men’s triples – the most of any Pacific Games Association in lawn bowls at the 2007 edition.

The Cook Islands showed its depth in women’s lawn bowls, taking the 2007 gold in both women’s triples and fours.

Samoa (singles), PNG (doubles) and Fiji (fours) won the other three men’s golds on offer.

The Commonwealth Games, which has held the sport at every edition apart from 1966, and the Pacific Games are the only multi code international or regional events that include lawn bowls on the programme.

In Port Moresby men and women will play plays singles, doubles, triples and fours.

Lawn bowls started for both men and women yesterday with three rounds of the round robin tournament due to be played.

The play continues through this week with semi finals and finals on the final day of the 2015 Games, this Saturday local time.