Anneke Scheepers and Wayne Roberts are showing up well as they bid for a place in the knockout rounds at the 2024 World Bowls Champions of Champions in Auckland, New Zealand.

Scheepers sits third in section 3 following the first two days’ play. Unfortunately, the softly-spoken ace bowler lost a tight battle with England’s Stef Branfield to break her 100% record.

Branfield and Anne Nunes (USA) are both unbeaten through three matches.

“Yeah, I had a bit of bad luck in the second set against England,” said Scheepers.

“I was lying game and felt quite good after winning the first set comfortably. My opposition was a bit lucky with her last bowl and got a good result with a heavy-ish bowl. That’s the sport, so I’m not too disappointed.

Perhaps, that shot played a bit too much in my mind during the tie-break. So I’ve reset and now I know I won’t be allowing that to happen again.”

As fate would have it, that’s exactly what needed to happen as Scheepers survived a tie-break to beat Malta’s strong challenge Connie Rixon.

“I’m feeling good and was a lot more confident today with the surfaces. So let’s see if I can take it up and finish the section well,” she added.

Scheepers must face Malaysia and Japan before a contest against Nunes, which at this point promises to be a blockbuster.

Teammate Wayne Roberts showed his class rebounding from an early loss to win two straight games on day two.

Another quiet character off the green who likes to let his bowls do the talking, Roberts is fourth in the section with only half a set point keeping him from the third playoff spot.

Roberts recovered from his defeat to the Cook Islands with back to back wins. Now, he has to make sure of no further slip ups in his next few games to maintain pace with the section leaders.

Roberts faces Sweden, Hong Kong - a key clash given it is a match between third and fourth as it stands - and Tonga before his last clash of the section with Sri Lanka.