Two South Otago indoor bowlers - Stephen Preddy (Paretai) and Marilyn Paterson (South Otago Town and Country) - won South Island titles in Balclutha at the weekend.
Preddy (28), a civil engineer, was a member of the Rakaia-Ashburton team that won the triples. The other members of the team were Michael Lawson (skip) and Ken Mackenzie.
In the final, the team beat Bob Crawford (skip), Marilyn Holmes and Alan Gillespie (Momona, Otago) 11-6. It was the final event of the three-day championships.
The South Island title was Preddy's third. He was in the same team that won the triples in 2010 and he won the pairs with Lawson in 2013.
Preddy, one of the best indoor bowlers in Otago, has won eight South Otago titles.
Paterson, who is regarded as the "super-sub'', joined the Canterbury fours team of Hornby WMC when a player was forced to withdraw because of injury.
The team of Mike King (skip), David Philpott, Paterson and Vanessa Tyson beat Derek Cooper (skip), Matt Begg, Carolyn Cooper and Daryn Turner (Timaru Town and Country) 13-3 in the final.
Paterson has won three South Otago titles but this was her first South Island title.
The Hornby four beat the Dunedin team of Daniel Sinclair (skip), Barry Cadogan, Mike Harte and Brent Sinclair (Green Island) 10-8 in the semifinal.
In the pairs final, Maurice Berkeley and Jenny Eden (Woolston WMC) beat Ken and Rowena McKenzie (Rakaia) 9-8.
It was the 39th annual South Island championship and the first held in South Otago. It is the 60th jubilee year of the South Otago Bowls Centre.
The event was at the Cross Recreation Centre, which was the only building big enough in the district to house the event.
It was necessary to have a floor area large enough to hold all the mats needed.
There were 115 teams in the pairs and it needed 53 mats. There were 65 teams in the triples and 55 in the fours.
All bowlers were happy with the venue which opened in late 2011.
The annual championships were held in Dunedin in 1958, 1976 and 2004, in Alexandra in 1986 and Queenstown in 2002.
•The final of the Dunedin PBA ranking singles event between Paul King (Andersons Bay) and Ross Stevens (St Clair) will be played later this week.
In the semifinals, Stevens beat Peter Wilson (Forbury Park) 9-9, 11-2 and King beat Oliver Mason (Forbury Park).
The winners of the Scottish singles event in other centres at the weekend were: Rob Ashton (Auckland) beat Linda Ralph (Auckland) 8-7, 8-4 in Pukekohe; Stephen Zino (Wellington) defeated Don Christensen (Taranaki) 10-4, 13-2 in New Plymouth; Murray Glassey (Hawkes Bay) downed Dean Drummond (Hawkes Bay) 8-5, 8-9, 2-1 in Hastings and Craig Merrilees (Southland) beat Aaron Tribe (Southland) 12-5, 7-7 in Invercargill.
