Bowls: Foster wary as he begins bid for a fourth world title

The Scot will be eyeing a fourth singles title and his second of the WBT season when he opens against Welshman Richard Morgan while 1996 winner David Gourlay has an all-Scottish tie against 23-year-old Gary Hutchison from Falkirk. Title holder Billy Jackson, from Lincoln, begins his defence against Canada's Hirendra Bhartu

Meadowmill's Foster, though, will be wary, after yesterday witnessing a scattering of the seeds at the Potters centre.

Four fell at their first hurdle – the second round – in an extraordinary day with only No.7 seed Jason Greenslade from Wales playing a 'bowl in a million' to keep himself in the competition and prevent a whitewash of ranked players.

The elite top 16 seeds on the WBT rankings list receive a bye through to the second round and it was curtains for No.2 seed Mark Royal, No.9 seed Mervyn King, No.12 seed Ian Bond and No.14 seed Simon Skelton. Royal and Bond lost to spirited performances from debutants Jarrad Breen, 17 from the Rhondda club in Wales and 19-year-old Ben Twist from the Australian Gold Coast.

Breen hauled himself back into contention after dropping the opening set to win 2-7, 7-5, 2-0 against Royal who has been a quarter-finalist for the last two years while Twist played confidently against Bond, who took out the pairs title with Andy Thomson just two days previously, and won 7-5, 8-4.

Cambridgeshire's Nick Brett chalked off Skelton, a semi-finalist for the last two years, winning in straight sets 8-3, 7-6 and in the last match of the day, Steve Glasson and King produced a feast of inch-perfect bowls but Glasson, who won the world outdoor singles in Ayr in 2004, nudged the verdict 6-5, 6-6.

Greenslade got off the hook when his stunning last bowl gave him the three shots he needed to end the hopes of Australian Brett Wilkie 11-6, 6-6 and take the result by one and a half sets to a half.