The Taupo champion pair began the three-day tournament with a 16-3 thumping at the hands of the St Heliers (Auckland) pair of Catherine Bien and Ling Qu. Then after battling out a 13-11 victory over Queenstown's Debra Lloyd and Andrea Dowman, Green and McIntosh found their mojo to put together some impressive victories on their path to the final.
On the other side of the draw, Bowls New Zealand development squad members Sara Scott and Bronwyn Stevens (Te Rangi, Invercargill) recorded some impressive victories and appeared odds-on to lay claim to the national crown.
"Oh my goodness, we played like idiots,'' Green, who played skip, said of their first round.
"We just couldn't get our length or find our line and got soundly beaten.''
Green said after scraping through the second round, the confidence came and "we just played lovely bowls''.
She added that in post-section play they "just got it right''.
The Taupo pair took early honours in the final, scoring one shot on the first of 18 ends, but Scott and Stevens hit back to hold a handy 4-1 lead at the end of the fourth end.
But then Green and McIntosh went up a gear to lead 8-4 at the end of the seventh end and kept the Te Rangi pair score for four ends over the middle stages.
While Scott and Stevens clawed their way back, the damage had been done as Green and McIntosh held a five-shot lead heading into the 18th and final end. They added a further shot on the final end to win 18-12.
The victory was Green's third national title and McIntosh's second.
New $950 bowls have proved fruitful for Hastings skip Tony Terry.
Terry made it six from six since buying his Collingwood AFL promotion bowls four months ago.
He and Hastings team-mate Mike Isaacson yesterday ran away with the national champion of champion men's pairs title over the last six of 18 ends
to win 20-12.
The right to contest the final came after they won an epic semifinal against one of the tournament favourites in Gore pairing Sheldon Bagrie-Howley and Caleb Hope.
Terry secured a 17-16 victory with his very last bowl, driving the jack into the ditch to score two shots and steal a place in the final.
On the other side of the draw the Alexandra pair of Patrick Houlahan and Roger O'Brien survived a quarterfinal scare to defeat Chris Bullock and Ross James (Wesport) 19-17, then appeared real threats for the title with a one-sided 20-14 victory over Daniel and David Hood (Whangarei).
Houlahan and O'Brien took first blood in the final scoring two shots on the first end but Terry and Isaacson responded with a double of their own, leading to a see-saw battle until Terry, drawing superbly, secured three shots on the 12th end and repeated the dose on the 13th.
While the Alexandra pair remained competitive for the final ends the damage had been done on those two ends as the Hastings pair secured a 20-12 win.
"Our skip came into his own and played some really big shots,'' Isaacson said of the victory.
He added that the pair had been playing together since the early 1980s and that "it has taken us this long to win a New Zealand title.''
- WAYNE PARSONS
