Bringing home the national RSA fours' title has made 2008 a year to remember for Whangarei indoor bowler Colin Douglass.
Douglass' four, skipped by Ron Diment, became the first Whangarei RSA side to taste success at the nationals for more than 35 years.
For Douglass, success came hard on the heels of
disappointment after he was part of Judy Johnston's triple who reached final but were defeated at the 59th National Indoor Bowls Championships in Tauranga two weeks ago.
But he wasn't too concerned about losing in the dramatic final, saying he was impressed that they had even got that far.
"It was a bit of a unique experience for me to be that far up at a national tournament, so it was an amazing feeling anyway," he said.
The success of Diment's four, of Douglass (three), Rua Manakau (two) and Anne Dawling (lead) at Upper Hutt last weekend has been a long time coming for the club.
"Whangarei have only won it once before, back in 1972, so we were more than pleased to win it again," Douglass said.
"That really tops it off for me because I've had to cut back on my bowls at the weekend because I've been working most Saturdays."
The team won four out of six matches last Saturday to progress to Sunday's second qualification round, where they won three out of four matches to make it through to the semifinals.
They beat the Porirua team to reach the finals and bowled well in the final to be 9-6 ahead going into the final end.
Their opponents from Putaruru held three scoring bowls on the head but when Diment drew the shot with his final bowl the Whangarei side won the title.
