Bowls: Wedding present comes early

Kerry Becks received an early wedding present when he skipped Kaikorai to a convincing win in the 56th annual Dunedin Festival Fours yesterday.

The Kaikorai team of Steve Wilson, Jim Mahuru, Brian Buchanan and Becks beat Bobby Johnson, John Cross, Brendon Hollander and Regan Larkin (Andersons Bay) 20-6 in the final at the Westpac Indoor Bowls Stadium.

Persistent rain made the outdoor greens unplayable and the last three rounds were transferred indoors from the headquarters green at Kaikorai.

Becks gets married in Christchurch in two weeks to former Dunedin woman Sue Buchanan, a sister of Brian Buchanan, the third in the Kaikorai team.

He gets his quarter share of the $2000 first prize in the event that was sponsored by the Southern Sports Bar.

It was the second Festival Fours title for Kaikorai greenkeeper Buchanan, who was in the winning team four years ago.

Andersons Bay started strongly with Larkin drawing a bonus shot on the second end to give his team a 3-0 lead.

At this stage, the Andersons Bay team was out-drawing Kaikorai and it was only the skills of Becks that kept Kaikorai in the game.

The fourth end was critical.

Andersons Bay had three shots on the head before Becks played two superb draw shots to level the scores at 3-3.

It was a five-shot turn around.

Becks (44), a production manager at Belfast, was an invitation player in the Kaikorai team.

He has played bowls for 25 years and has won five Canterbury titles.

He was a member of the Canterbury team that won the national inter-centre title at Palmerston North three years ago.

"I wasn't worried at this stage," Becks said.

"We just had to hang in there and get bowls on the head."

The Andersons Bay team was still drawing accurately and added three more shots on the next two ends to lead 6-3.

The turning point in the game came on the seventh end when Becks killed the end when Andersons Bay had two shots on the head and would have stretched the lead to 8-3.

Becks immediately called his team together and asked them to play through the head to avoid short bowls.

The team got their weight right after this, drew closer to the jack, and put pressure on Andersons Bay.

The Kaikorai team drew four shots on the replay of the seventh end to lead for the first time in the game, 7-6.

Kaikorai was on top and scored 17 unanswered points on the last six ends.

The front three of Wilson, Mahuru and Buchanan played more accurately and drew the shots.

It was in this period that Larkin unleashed six drives that missed the target.

He ran the jack into the ditch to kill the 12th end.

He hit his drive on the replay and the jack sped into the ditch.

But it went the wrong way and gave three shots to Kaikorai and the game was over.

Becks beat Graham Cocks (Andersons Bay) 14-13 in the semifinal and Larkin beat Dennis Leeden (Wakari) 12-6.

John Munro (Fairfield) beat Greg Johnsen (Green Island) 16-14 to win the plate final.

Bruce Kelly (North Otago) beat Ron Challis (Wakari) 28-7 in the plate final.