It proved to be a good day for the host nation's team on the first day of the second week of competitions as they won all 12 games on Tuesday in four disciplines.

Edwards and Boyd opened their account at Burnside Bowling Club with a thumping 28-9 win over Cyprus before beating the Philippines' Ainie Knight and Ascuncion Bruce, 19-14.

But it was their commanding 24-7 win over Australia's Karen Murphy and Kelsey Cottrell that was most impressive.

Murphy successfully defended her singles title on Sunday (December 4), while Cottrell, a gold medallist with the Australian four on Saturday, is a defending pairs champion.

Edwards, at skip, is a two-time former world pairs champion but her lead Boyd, a bronze medallist in the fours last week, is competing at her first World Bowls Championships tournament.

Edwards and Boyd were the only team to secure three wins in their pairs section, while Wales, Scotland and South Africa had perfect 3-0 records in the other group at Bowls Papanui.

New Zeland's Shannon McIlroy was among three men in his section to win their first three singles matches at Bowls Papanui.

The 29-year-old had to work hard to win his opening singles match 21-17 against Hong Kong China's Tony Cheung, but was much more convincing in the afternoon where her overcame Brunei's Abd Rahman HJ Omar 21-10.

Completing an impressive day for McIlroy was a hard-fought 21-17 win over Cyprus' Loukas Paraskeva.

The Kiwi men's four of Mike Nagy, Mike Kernaghan, Blake Signal and skip Ali Forsyth were comfortable 26-10 victors over their Israeli counterparts and followed that with a 13-9 win over a Canadian team skipped by Steve McKerihen, before thrashing Fiji 25-5 at Burnside Bowling Club.

Scotland, skipped by Alex Marshall who is widely regarded as the top male bowler in the world, and South Africa were also both unbeaten today.

England, skipped by Sam Tolchard, and Australia, helmed by Mark Casey, had three wins in section two at Canterbury Centre while Ireland were also unbeaten after two victories and a 17-17 draw with Jersey. 

Katelyn Inch, Kirsten Edwards and skip Val Smith made it a memorable morning for New Zealand as they defeated Namibia 21-11 in the women's triples, also at Burnside Bowling Club.

They also edged Hong Kong 17-15 and convincingly beat China, 26-10.

Malaysia, England and New Zealand were unbeaten in their section, which took place at Fendalton, with Australia the sole team in the other group to pick up three wins.

The top three qualify from each group for post-section play after the round robin stage concludes on Thursday.