Peter Belliss, Jo Edwards and Val Smith have all been world champions and three of the New Zealand's most successful internationals, but they were key members of beaten fours teams in a day of post-section upsets yesterday.
The Leeston team of Stu Boon, Kevin Greenwood, Trevor Kennett and Colin Lowery has become the giant killer of the championships.
It knocked out Gary Lawson's star-studded team on Monday and yesterday beat the Composite team skipped by triple World Bowls champion Belliss 19-15.
The Southland composite team of Pam Calder, Glenice Paisley, Jan Low and skip Shona Klimeck sent the Composite team of Kaye Hammond, Colleen Earl, Smith and Edwards packing with a 15-14 win.
Lowery, a Mid-Canterbury grain farmer, is causing a few ripples in his first national championship for eight years.
The key to Lowery's success was his decision to go back to his old and heavier black Classic 2 bowls.
He brought two different sets of bowls to Dunedin and the heavier ones have worked wonders on slower rain-soaked greens.
''If you miss the line by a wee bit with the tighter bowls you're gone,'' Lowery said.
''Getting back to the centre line is the secret and the older bowls do that.''
The Leeston four had six shots around the head on the first end before Belliss killed the end with his last bowl.
That was the pattern of the game. Leeston was drawing the early shots and Belliss was saving shots with the drive, run and occasional draw.
Belliss was virtually a one-man band and was keeping his team in the game by running out the Leeston shot bowls or running the jack to the ditch. It was Belliss' skilled play that put his team in front 15-11 with two ends left.
Leeston was one down on the head on the 18th end and Lowery drove the shot bowl out with his first bowl and drew a shot with his second bowl to force the extra end.
On the final end, Leeston had two early bowls close to the jack and Belliss was not able to drive them out.
Lowery's team-mate, Greenwood, won a national fours title with Andre Smith's Composite team in 1998.
Rain interrupted Lowery's second game after six ends. He trails Andrew Kelly (Composite) 5-3. Kelly had a commanding 20-3 win over Laurie Shanks (West End, Timaru) when the game was called off after just six ends.
Klimick had beaten Edwards in 2004 on her way to win the national singles title and the following year when she won the national Pathways title.
''It felt wonderful to do it again,'' Klimick said.
''We just kept plugging away with our own game plan.''
It was an experienced team with all team members having Southland gold stars. Klimick has a record 23 Southland titles.
The accurate draw play gave Klimick an early 10-4 lead before Smith and Edwards started the comeback. With one end left, the scores were level at 14-14.
Edwards rolled in for the shot with her last bowl and all the pressure went on Klimick, who responded with an accurate weighted run shot that took out the shot bowl and Southland had won.
Mandy Boyd won the clash of the Black Jacks when she beat Sandra Keith (Dunsandel) 13-12 in a cliffhanger.
With her last bowl, Keith trailed the jack for one shot and missed the measure for second shot by just 3cm.
The other main upset came when Blair Barringer (Fairfield) beat the North East Valley all-stars team containing three internationals in Shaun Scott, Jim Scott and Terry Scott, as well as Stephen O'Driscoll, 17-16.
North East Valley led 16-15 on the board and had a shot on the head when Terry Scott played his last bowl.
It moved the jack sideways and gave two shots and the game to Barringer.
Heavy rain in the early afternoon soaked the greens and play was abandoned for the day at 3.30pm.
Tournament director Allan Griffiths said all players would meet at the Taieri headquarters green at 8.30am today.
''We will review the weather and use the Westpac Indoor Bowls Stadium if we have to,'' he said.
''But we would prefer to play games outdoors.''
