The 60th annual Dunedin Festival Fours was played under the points system and the seven-game contest at the Kaikorai green was decided on a points differential.
The Kaikorai Composite team of Harris Gonsalves (18), Nick Sinclair (20), Callum Horwell (20) and Geoff Wilson (64) won with 166 points (differential plus 46) and was followed by the South Otago combination of Wynston McLachlan, Wynette McLachlan, Sandy McNoe and Graham Hislop) 166 (plus 22), Regan Larkin (Composite) 149, Doug Thomas (North East Valley) 144 and Maurice Andrews (Composite) 126.
The chances of a win for Wilson's team looked bleak when it was beaten 15-9 by Marty Kreft (Alexandra) in its second-last game.
The team was 22 points behind the unbeaten South Otago combination before the last game.
South Otago only had to win its final game, against Buck Buchanan's Kaikorai team, to win the cup. It started strongly and looked to have the game and the cup in hand when it led 7-2 after six of the 12 ends.
But it scored on only one more end while the Kaikorai team scored eight points on the other five ends to win 10-8.
It was all square before the final end. Jim Mahuru's first bowl was the shot and stayed in place before Hislop's last two attacking drives narrowly missed the target.
Wilson, meanwhile, was accumulating the points against Graham Allan (Kaikorai) and won comfortably 24-10.
Wilson started playing bowls in 1971 but this is only the third time he has played in the Festival Fours.
‘‘I wasn't going to play but Callum invited me to join his team last Wednesday,'' Wilson said.
‘‘The others are a lot younger than me and I pushed the average age up.''
Wilson has won 13 Bowls Dunedin titles and was a regular member of the Dunedin intercentre team for more than a decade.
Sinclair, a tourism and travel student at the Otago Polytechnic, is a talented indoor bowler and finished runner-up in the New Zealand under-30 singles last winter.
A feature of Wilson's team was the steady and consistent bowls of his front three. Wilson added the bonus points.
Tournament secretary Bryan Buchanan was pleased with the late entries that came in to make sure that the event was held.
‘‘We had six extra entries in the last week,'' he said.
‘‘We have taken feedback from the bowlers and will make any changes that are needed to make sure this iconic Dunedin event has a long-term future.''
