The Aramoho and Wanganui Bowling Club teams change ends during the men's fours final at the St John Club on Sunday.
This weekend saw the culmination of the season for many of Whanganui's top bowlers with the Bowls Wanganui finals weekend held at St Johns Bowling Club on both Saturday and Sunday.
The weather conditions were sunny and relatively calm across both days, which played its part in some great matches being played and the format of all the finals of the Open events being held on the same weekend meant that good crowds were able to witness multiple finals.
As reported in the Whanganui Chronicle yesterday, Saturday morning saw the Ryman Healthcare Men's and Women's Open Triples semi finals take place.
In the Men's semifinals Phil Corney's Aramoho team defeated Greg Horne's Wanganui team 16-8, with the Corney team in front for most of the match.
In the other semifinal, Sean Johnson's Aramoho team defeated Ray Savage's Wanganui team 15-10 after the Savage team held an early lead 7-2, but were unable to score on the next eight ends.
By the time they did score again the score was 14-7 in favour of the Johnson team.
In the final, Sean Johnson, Keith Slight and Kevin Coombe won the match 16-14 over Phil Corney, Gavin Scrivener and Selwyn Prescott.
The match was close in the early stages, before Johnson's team established a six point lead.
The Corney team fought back to require a three on the final end to tie the match and send it to an extra end, however they were only able to score a further point.
In the Women's semifinals, Pam Burgess' Wanganui team beat Claire Ellen's Wanganui East team 201-6, after holding a large lead at the half way point of the match before Wanganui East staged a comeback.
For the other semifinal, Marlene Foster's Wanganui East team also held a sizeable lead in the early stages of the match before the Joan Raymond Composite team staged their comeback.
In the end though, Foster's team held on to win 23-16.
Come the final, Marlene Foster, Judy Johnston and Ann Morgan beat Pam Burgess, Dot Belliss and Denise Taylor by 21-11, as Foster played several telling bowls that helped her team to victory.
Unfortunately, the Subway Victoria Ave Mixed Pairs final was unable to be played as the Gonville-Castlecliff team of Chris Waterson and Anne Loveridge were unable to make it due to a family emergency.
This meant that Ray Park and Dianne Patterson from Wanganui were awarded the title, as there was no provision for another team to be substituted in to play the final match.
In the Cleveland Funeral Homes Women's Open Singles final, which was an all Laird Park affair, the match started off closely with Pauline Pirere taking an early four points lead by virtue of scoring a single shot on the first fours ends.
Shirley Dollimore, who is still an Academy player, having played for eight or less years, then scored to make it 4-1.
In what was a closely fought match, Pirere won in the end by a score of 21-10.
In the St John's Club Men's Open Singles, Gavin Scrivener of Aramoho got away to an early lead over Clint Park of Wanganui, leading 5-0 after only two ends.
The game then settled into a rhythm, with both players trading shots, before Park drew ahead to only need a single shot to get to 21 with Scrivener back on 14 points.
Scrivener then scored on the next four ends, with some of his shots surviving drives by Park that managed to take off some shots but not all of them.
Playing the final end, Park was still ahead 20-19.
After both players had played their third bowl, Park held the winning shot, but Scrivener had some bowls towards the back of the rink.
With his last bowl, Scrivener played a run shot that needed to either take out Park's shot bowl or trail the jack back into the ditch.
The result was Scrivener hitting the jack, although not squarely, and taking it back to the ditch to leave him holding the two shots he required to win the match.
Park with his last bowl was unable to reduce the count and Scrivener had won a thrilling final to bring about an exciting end to Saturday's play.
Sunday morning saw the Ryman Healthcare Men's and Women's Open Pairs finals played at 9am.
In the Women's final, Dianne Patterson and Lesley Bourke from Wanganui started well against Joan Raymond and Margaret Blinkhorne from Wanganui East as they held a nine point lead mid-way through the match.
The Raymond team then picked up a three to close to within six points, but this was as close as they were able to get with the Patterson team eventually winning 20-12.
In the Men's final, Bruce Winterburn and Shane Broderson from Durie Hill played Keith Slight and Gavin Scrivener from Aramoho.
The match was close all through the early stages with neither team able to establish more than a two shot lead.
Going in to the final end, Durie Hill were ahead by two points.
After several shot changes during the course of the end, Aramoho held the two shots they needed to force the match into an extra end, but with his last bowl Keith Slight was unable to add the third shot that would have secured victory.
On the extra end, first Durie Hill then Aramoho held the winning shot.
With his last bowl, Winterburn was able to kill the end by getting the jack out the side of the rink.
On the second extra end, Aramoho again held the winning shot before Winterburn's second to last bowl.
He was able to drive out that shot bowl leaving Durie Hill with the winning shot with Aramoho having one bowl left to play.
Keith Slight drew on his backhand and when the bowl came to rest it was just outside the Durie Hill bowl, giving Durie Hill the victory.
In the Rymans Healthcare Women's Fours final, the Wanganui team of Dianne Patterson, Lesley Bourke, Eleni Meimaris and Karen Hunt were on front for most of the match against the Wanganui East team of Marlene Foster, Judy Johnston, Eileen Anderson and Joan Raymond.
Wanganui East did stage a comeback towards the end of the match and going into the last end they required a three to tie the game.
Unfortunately they were only able to secure a single shot to eventually lose the match 13-11.
With this Bowls Wanganui centre title, Karen Hunt secured her Gold Star, meaning she has now won five centre titles.
In the Rymans Healthcare Men's Open Fours final, the Wanganui team of Clint Park, Ray Park, Bernard Anderson and Alan Dickson started well against the Aramoho team of Phil Corney, Gavin Scrivener, Selwyn Prescott and Brendon Kenny, taking a sizeable early lead.
A pivotal end saw the Aramoho team holding two shots, before Ray Park was able to run the jack in the ditch on an end where Wanganui had several other bowls already behind the jack.
At the finish of this end, instead of Aramoho picking up two shots they dropped six shots.
Wanganui soon ran out winners 24-6.
With this centre title, Ray Park secured his 13th Gold Star, meaning he has now won 65 centre titles.
Bowls Wanganui wants to congratulate all players and clubs who were represented over the weekend and to thank the St Johns Bowling Club for hosting the event and everyone who was involved in preparing and organising the event.
We would also once again like to thank all the sponsors for their generosity towards the sport of bowls in Whanganui.