Gordon and Russell Dawe won their third open pairs title together in four years when they beat Andy McLean and Mike Kernaghan (North East Valley) 16-14 at the Fairfield green on Monday night.
It was a significant win because Kernaghan has just returned from the Gold Coast, where he was a member of the Black Jacks team that beat Australia in the Trans Tasman event.
Gordon (61), a Dunedin car painter, has been playing bowls since 1978 and won his first centre title only four years ago.
He teamed with Dawe in 2014 and this is the third open pairs title they have won together. He also won the fours last season.
``My first title was very good but beating a team skipped by world champion Mike Kernaghan was the pinnacle for me,'' Gordon said.
``I'm over the moon.''
It was the seventh centre title for Dawe (71), a retired railway worker, and his fifth in the pairs.
Dawe put his attention on the game and not on his illustrious opponent.
``I wasn't thinking about Mike being a world champion. I didn't give it a thought. We were just playing our own game and not worrying who the opposition was,'' Dawe said.
Gordon was accurate with his lead bowls and this was the key to Kaikorai's win.
The lead decides the game of pairs and Gordon did this for most of the game by getting the better of McLean.
On the penultimate end, Kernaghan pushed out the shot bowl and collected three shots to reduce the gap to one point before the final end.
Gordon draped one bowl close to the jack on the 18th end and it remained in position to give Kaikorai the win.
