Wanganui Bowling Club's Clint Park managed a clean sweep with a quartet of titles at the Bowls Wanganui open finals weekend, held at the St Johns Bowling Club.
The five major interclub championships for the season were all decided over Saturday and Sunday, with the game schedule having to bearranged specificially to accomodate Park playing in all but one of them.
It was the fourth time Bowls Wanganui have used the format of taking the finalists from their centre tournaments, held throughout the season, and playing the last games at the same time and location.
The tournaments would finish on their regular days after the semifinals, unless weather caused delays, which was the case for the Subway Vic Ave 2-4-2 Mixed Pairs semifinals, which therefore had to lead off the festivities on Saturday morning.
The Wanganui pair of the Bourke's – Lesley and Kerry – narrowly defeated Aramoho BC's Peter Belliss and Reen Stratford 14-12, while Wanganui East's Warrick Pinker and Maria Klitscher overcame the other Wanganui BC team of Alan Dickson and Karen Hunt13-9.
In the final, the Bourke's picked up another 14-12 clutch win.
Held at the same time as that playoff was the Ryman Healthcare Men's Open Fours final, and the Women's Open Triples.
Wanganui BC made it two titles and counting in the Fours, as the Park-skipped team of Ray Savage, Michael O'Leary and Anthony Hanna had a comfortable 19-11 win over the Gonville-Castlecliff squad of skip Robbie Aitken, John Reyland, Colin Cox and Bob Bristol.
In the Triples, Aramoho BC's Diane Stewart (s), Loralie Hawkes and Ann Kendrick snuffed out Gonville-Castlecliff's other hope of a centre title, as they won the final 16-12 against Heather Johnson, Janet Harden and Beti Broome.
The next round was the Ryman Healthcare Men's Open Triples and Women's Open Fours, with the two sets of Triples and Fours finals having to be played at different times due to Park's involvement in both.
He made it two trophies on the trot by skipping the Wanganui BC team of O'Leary and Ray Park to a 20-10 win over Aramoho BC's team of Peter and John Belliss, along with Brendon Kenny.
The Women's Fours saw Klitscher get a little payback for the Mixed Pairs final, as she skipped the Wanganui East team of Joan Raymond, Debbie Wildermoth and Judy Johnston to a straight forward 15-7 win over Wanganui BC's Dianne Patterson (s), Lesley Bourke, Deborah Garside and Hunt.
Sunday morning began with both the Ryman Healthcare Men's and Women's Open Pairs finals.
The Park's - skip Clint and Ray – defeated Durie Hill's sole finalists in skip Bruce Winterburn and Shane Broderson 23-10, as Ray Park's title double matched his finals day success from 12 months before.
It was similar story in the Women's Pairs final, as the Wanganui BC team of skip Patterson and Lesley Bourke faced Terrace End's sole representatives in Honey Giblett and Lynlea Rogers – picking up a comfortable 22-7 win to give Bourke her second title from three finals for the weekend.
The main events followed with the Open Singles, as Park was trying to win the St Johns Club Men's title he had missed by just one point in a thriller in 2019 against Aramoho's Gavin Scrivener.
This time, Park was able to overcome another Aramoho BC representative in the form of a fresh Kevin Coombe, winning 21-19.
There were two different finalists to 2019 from the Cleveland Funeral Home Women's Open Singles final, as Stratford defeated Patterson 21-11 to give Aramoho BC their second title of the weekend.
