He is the only bowler to win the Kevin and Ainslie Brosnan Trophy — first contested in 1985 — four years in a row.
He received the trophy at the annual awards dinner last weekend.
French (31), a Dunedin painter, first won the title in 2009 and this was his sixth win.
Grant L’Ami’s four wins include three consecutive titles from 1999 to 2000.
Garry Flewitt and Ross Garner have also won the Bowler of the Year title on four occasions.
"It was good to do something no-one else has achieved before," French said.
The final Bowler of the Year points were: Daniel French 73, Lyn Rance 37, Hugh Bosman 32, David Webb and John Williams 30, Brent Sinclair , Brandon Williams 27,Daniel Sinclair, Kevin Keogh 23, Marilyn Holmes 22.
French won four centre titles this year in the Otago singles, pairs and fours and the champion of champions singles.
He also won the Henselite singles, mixed pairs and fours.
These are events that count for bowler of the year points but do not count as centre titles.
French has now won 21 Otago titles and is third on the list behind Garry Flewitt 32 and Bob Cowan 23.
He is followed by Kevin Darling 20, Barry Cadogan and Lyn Rance 19, and Mark Cowan and Trevor Gould 18.
• Rance has also won 20 Bowls Dunedin outdoor titles and is poised to become the first bowler to win 20 indoor and outdoor titles in the Dunedin based centre.
Ross Garner, James Horton, Richard Baird, Lynn Baird (Mornington) beat Jonty Horwell, Callum Horwell, Sean Hall, Mitchell Scott (Kaikorai) 13-6 in the champion of champions fours that was the last event of the Otago indoor season.
It was the 16th title for Garner and the first for Horton, Richard and Lynn Baird.
Daphne Lamb (Vauxhall) also won her first centre title after 30 years in the sport when she beat Amanda Katipa (Henley) 12-8 in the final of the women’s champion of champion’s singles.
Lamb started playing indoor bowls 30 years ago when she and her husband Keith owned an orchard at Roxburgh.
She finished runner-up in the champion of champions singles two years ago and partnered her husband Keith when they lost the pairs final to Carolyn Crawford and her mother Pearl six years ago.
• Rhonda Sinclair and Rhonda Lockerbie (Oamaru) reached important milestones last winter by winning their fifth North Otago titles and their gold stars.
All champion of champions events in North Otago this season were won by the Eveline Club.
Gordon Robb won the men’s singles and Nicky Shiferaw the women’s title.
The pairs was won by Cliff Ormandy and Andrew Robb and the triples by Gordon Robb, Shiferaw and Diana McGregor.
Gordon Robb won his thirty-third North Otago title when he skipped the winning four.
The other team members were Ormandy, Shiferaw and McGregor.
Shiferaw won her first title in the pairs and finished the season with three champion of champion’s titles.
McGregor now has 17 North Otago titles, Andrew Robb 11 and Ormandy four.
Oamaru scored 140 points and won the Otago Licensing Trust trophy for most points scored by a club.
Eveline was runner-up with 80 points.
• Tainui club stalwart Rex Sims reached a significant milestone when he began his 50th year with the club at its opening day last Saturday.
Sims (86), a retired builder, joined the club in 1966.
His father, John Sims, played for the club and he used to watch him play on the Tainui green as a youngster.
He started competitive bowls when "a friend invited me to have a roll on club night. There was a cold wind and I didn’t want to come back," Sims recalled.
He was a versatile sportsman in his youth and was in winning teams in football and softball and was the YMCA junior gymnastics champion.
There was a special family link with the Tainui club because his wife Joan’s father, John Lunam, was a founding member of the club in 1930.
"The club is my second home and I enjoy meeting the people who come here," Sims said.
"I have enjoyed my 50 years of bowls."
Sims has won four Bowls Dunedin titles and just needs one more for his gold star.
Two of his regular partners in centre events have been Brian Schofield and Peter Stumbles.
His highlight was to beat New Zealand champions Bruce Malcolm and Gordon Duggie in the champion of champion’s pairs in 1990 with Schofield.
Sims dominates the honours board at the Tainui club and has won 70 club titles in outdoor and indoor bowls.
He is not the oldest playing member at the Tainui club. That honour belongs to George McGimpsey (93).
The oldest social member is 102-year-old "Robbie" Robertson who is a regular at club days and was on hand to celebrate Sims’ 50 years last Saturday.
• The Queenstown Bowling Club started the season with a bang by holding a Super Sunday Singles competition.
It was introduced from the Sunshine Coast of Australia and was a quick-fire competition that was the bowls version of one-day cricket.
There was a capacity field of 48 bowlers that included most of Central Otago’s top guns.
The mixed event was drawn in sections of six.
Each bowler played five 13 end games and marked for three games.
Points scored did not matter.
It was all about ends won.
The section winners advanced to the sudden death post-section with the remaining players contesting the plate.
Alan Brash (Arrowtown) beat Simon Nyhoff (Wanaka) 5-0 in the final. He beat Bob Howitt (Arrowtown) 5.5 to 3.5 in the semi-final.
Brash, the winner of four Central Otago titles, was recovering from shoulder surgery for bone spurs and was a late entry into the event.
Other top competitors included Tom Malcolm and Richie Muir (Wanaka), Bob McAuley (South Otago), Pat Houlahan (Alexandra), Alistair Watson and Connor Muir (Clyde), Margaret O’Connor and Christine Buchanan (Queenstown) and Lynley O’Callaghan and Imelia Holdom (Alexandra).
• Rugby News founding editor Bob Howitt is now living in Arrowtown and is playing for the local club.
He played 15 years of bowls for the Takapuna club at Auckland before shifting south this year.
He has been appointed the publicity officer for Central Otago bowls.
Howitt was at the helm of Rugby News for 26 years from 1970 to 1996.
He is a prolific author on rugby and wrote biographies of many of the great All Blacks over the last 40 years.
