MEDALLISTS: Susan Nel, Elma Davis, Sylvia Burns of SA who won a bronze medal in the triples at World Bowls Championships in New Zealand (Picture: TREVOR DAVIS )

SA Women Protea bowlers win bronze in NZ

The South African bowls Protea women’s triples side won a bronze medal on Day 10 of at the 2016 World Bowls Championships in , New Zealand today. It was South Africa’s sole medal at the blue riband event, but a superb effort.

In the elimination quarter-finals SA’s Elma Davis, Susan Nel, Sylvia Burns won a nail-biting match 18-17 against ’s (Julie Forrest, Stacey McDougall, Claire Johnston and then in a semi-final, the SA trio again played superbly, but had to bow to all-conquering (, , Carla Krizanic), who won 17- 15 in another cliffhanger.

In other triples matches (quarter-finals), Wales (Emma Woodcock, Kathy Pearce, Anwen Butten) beat England (Jamie-Lea Winch, Rebecca Wigfield, Wendy King) 16-12 and then went on to beat Malaysia (Azalina Arshad, Nor Hashimah Ismail Fidrah Noh, 18-16.

The final (tonight 10pm SA sees Wales meet Australia

Other play-offs (from lead to skip):

Men's singles: Elimination finals: (AUS) bt Jon Tomlinson (WAL) 21-8, (SCO) bt Fairus Jabal (MAS) 21-13. Semi -finals: Ryan Bester (CAN) bt Darren Burnett (SCO) 21-20, Shannon McIlroy (NZL) bt Aron Sherriff (AUS) 21-17. Final: Shannon McIlroy (NZL) v Ryan Bester (CAN).

Men’s fours: Elimination finals: SCO (, Iain McLean, , ) bt ENG (Louis Ridout, Andy Knapper, Rob Paxton, Sam Tolchard) 20-10, AUS (, , Aaron Wilson, ) bt USA (Aaron Zangl, Scott Roberts, James Flower, Charlie Herbert) 21-12. Semi-finals: NZL bt SCO (Ronnie Duncan, Iain McLean, Paul Foster, Alex Marshall) 20-3; AUS bt IRE (Simon Martin, Neil Mulholland, Ian McClure, Martin McHugh) 22-10. Final: AUS vs NZL.

Women’s pairs: Elimination finals: ENG (, Ellen Falkner) bt AUS (Kelsey Cottrell, Karen Murphy) 17-12, SCO (Lesley Doig, Lauren Baillie) bt MAS (Emma Firyana Saroji, Siti Zalina Ahmad) 20-5; Semi-finals: WAL (Laura Daniels, Jess Sims) bt SCO 20-11, NZL (Angela Boyd, Jo Edwards) bt ENG 13-11. Final : Wales vs NZL Alan Peter Simmonds, Media Officer, Bowls SA (www.bowlssa.co.za)