St Clair bowler Jack van Zanten had never won anything of significance in the 24 years of his bowls career.
It changed yesterday when he skipped the winning team in the Festival Fours.
The composite team of John Williamson (Andersons Bay), Gary Skelton (St Clair), Peter Laughton (Tainui) and van Zanten beat the Fairfield combination of Brian Malcolm, Ross Thomson, John Latimer and Bruce Walker 18-13 in a dramatic final on the Kaikorai green.
"It feels great," van Zanten (75), a retired fitter and welder, said after the game.
"It was a tight game and we were under duress."
The win was special to Laughton (80), who worked at the Bank of New Zealand for 42 years.
He had competed in the Kaikorai Festival Fours many times and had never won anything of significance before in his 40 years of bowls.
"It's almost unbelievable, he said. It's been a wonderful experience for me."
Gary Skelton (76) was the only member of the team who had won a centre senior title when he was in former All Black coach Eric Watson's triples team a decade ago.
John Williamson (69), the "baby" of the team, is better known for his exploits in indoor bowls.
He is a retired orchardist from Clyde and has won a Central Otago junior outdoor title.
The Kaikorai Festival Fours main sponsor is the St Kilda Community Sports Society and the event has prize money of $10,000.
Each member of the winning team received a voucher worth $900.
This year the Festival Fours was reduced from five days to three and this meant that the final was restricted to 18 ends or a two-hour time limit.
A good start was essential and Fairfield took the early advantage by scoring nine shots on the first four ends.
Malcolm led accurately and skip Walker played some telling drives and rescue shots.
"Making the final was special for us and we were stage struck over the first few ends," Laughton admitted.
But the composite team then settled into its game, with Williamson leading accurately, Skelton playing some telling shots to the jack at two and Laughton adding the extra shots by pushing out the shot bowls.
The composite team came back into the game by scoring one, two, one, four and two on the next five ends, to lead 10-9 after nine ends.
The scores were level at 10-all before the 11th end that proved to be decisive.
Both teams held shot and Van Zanten was one down on the head when he trailed the jack to his back bowls with his final bowl and collected four shots.
That bowl represented a turn-around of five shots and gave the composite team the lead that it held on to the finish.
There was a hiccup on the next end when Walker edged the jack sideways with his final bowl and then drew the bonus shot for three to reduce the margin to 14-13.
The composite team played it safe after that to conserve its lead and took singles in the 13th and 14th ends.
It added two more shots after time was called after the start of the 16th end and won by five shots.
In the semi-finals van Zanten beat Kerry Becks (Christchurch) 15-7 and Fairfield beat Josh Freeman (Fairfield) 10-9.
The Oamaru team of Patrick Kelly, Ian Pitches, John Smith and Bruce Kelly won the plate final when it beat Peter Stumbles (Tainui) 21-13.
The Kaikorai team of Jim Wintrup, Ray Trewern, Mal Carmichael and Jim Culbert won the consolation event when it beat Kenny Ball (Mornington) 18-10.
