Lancefield Bowling Club’s singles champions were decided on Saturday.
Bev Holmes captured her 10th women’s singles title at Tigerland, and is now just one behind legendary champ Doreen Linehan’s record of 11 on the honour board.
It was inevitable that Aaron Young would emerge as a Lancefield champion, such is his unflappable talents in any company, and the 27-year-old finally broke through.
The scores for the favourites in both finals were 25-13.
Holmes eclipsed last year’s first-time champion Ann Shipcott with a consistent brand of bowls in the women’s final.
“I was pleased with how I played today,” Holmes said.
A regular division one skipper in Saturday pennant, Holmes has long been rated as one of the district’s top players – being skipper in last season’s division one premiership victory with six shots on the final end is one of her many highlights.
In the men’s semi-finals, reigning champion Gordon Charles out drew Peter Shannon to advance 25-11, while Young had his work cut out to fend off a strong challenge from the talented Aaron Andrews. They both played in metro last season.
Andrews led 15-12 before Young’s greater consistency prevailed for a 25-17 margin.
In the final Young took an early lead against Charles, and the score blew out to 22-3 at one stage before the latter played some of his best bowls to collect 10 shots and delay the inevitable.
Young actually began bowls as an 11-year-old at Romsey, influenced by his mother Tracey who was at the club in a leadership role.
Championship victories as a 15 and 17-year-old at Romsey followed, and he eventually came to Lancefield to play on a turf, rather than synthetic surface.
This was Young’s third championship final in eight seasons at Lancefield, being eclipsed by multiple champion Jeff Holmes in the previous two.
The club wishes Bev Holmes and Aaron Young well at Champions of Champion level.
