By Gary Anderson

New Zealand has named its lawn bowls squad for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games ©Getty Images April 22 - New Zealand will be represented by a team of 15 lawn bowlers at this year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and will be led by veterans Val Smith, Jo Edwards and Ali Forsyth who will be joined by some exciting new talent in the form of Selina Goddard, Amy McIlroy and Mandy Boyd.

In all, 10 players will take part in the able-bodied competitions at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre while five will represent New Zealand in the Para-sport lawn bowls events.

Smith, a silver medallist in the singles at Delhi 2010, will be competing in her third Commonwealth Games this year and is set to take part in the women's pairs competition along with veteran Edwards who will also be competing in singles.

Smith is down to take part in the fours also and will be joined by debutants Mandy Boyd, Amy McIlroy and Selina Goddard who will be the threesome for the triples competition.

The inclusion of Goddard, Boyd and McIlroy reduces the average age of the women's team to 31, 10 years younger than the team at Delhi.

The 19-year-old Goddard, who has been putting in consistent performances of late, revealed her surprise at being included for the squad.

"It was a shock, especially for a big tournament like the Commonwealth Games," she said.

"I thought that I was actually aiming for the 2018 [Commonwealth Games] on the Gold Coast.

"To cut that down by four years, I'm really speechless."

The men's team contains three players with previous Games experience and sees Blake Signal and Tony Grantham as the only players not to have competed at this level.

Signal will join Richard Girvan on the pairs team while Grantham will join both players in the fours competition along with Ali Forsyth.

Forsyth and Grantham will also take part in the triples event along with Shannon McIlroy who is down to compete in the singles competition as well.

Selina Goddard revealed her surprise at being selected on New Zealand's lawn bowls team for Glasgow 2014 ©Getty Images Selina Goddard revealed her surprise at being selected on New Zealand's lawn bowls team for Glasgow 2014 ©Getty Images



Of the five Para-sport lawn bowlers, only Barry Wynks has previously competed at a Commonwealth Games.

Lynda Bennett and Mark Noble join him in the disabled triples event while David Stallard and Sue Curran will contest the partially sighted pairs.

New Zealand have won 11 lawn bowls gold medals at Commonwealth Games, but the last victory came at Manchester 2002 when Jo Edwards and Sharon Sims took the win in the women's pairs.

"New Zealand has had mixed results over the last 18 months in international competitions and we know competition in Glasgow will be intense," said head coach, Dave Edwards.

"However, we believe the side that will represent us in July now has the mix of both experience and skill to achieve our goals.

"It has been a lengthy process to get to this stage through trials and training camps, and those selected should be commended on how they have prepared themselves to this point.

"However, the hard work continues now as the Games are just a matter of months away."

The lawn bowls competition at Glasgow 2014 will see athletes competing in four medal events for both men and women while there will be twp Para-sport events.

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