THE winners have been crowned at Helensburgh Bowls Club Championships after the final fixtures were played last week.

The mixed pairs final was between Patricia McCallan and Gary Mackie and previous winners Claire Dennett and Alan Air.

Claire and Alan opened the scoring with a six at the first end followed by a single and a four to lead by 11 shots to one after four ends. Pat and Gary were not finished yet and they had a flourish of scoring adding seven shots to their total to narrow the gap to just three shots, however, this did not last as Claire and Alan went on another scoring rush to win the trophy again quite comfortably.

The junior under-16 championship saw Brandon Mackie-Fleming facing the more experienced Murray Grant who opened the scoring and swept into a lead of 16 shots to four after 13 ends.

Brandon was not for giving up easily and fought back to narrow the gap to 17 shots to 14 before Murray won the last three ends to win by 21 shots to 15.

The Gents’ Captain’s final featured two players aiming for their first singles success in John Pearce and David West.

David opened the scoring in an excellent game before John produced three great ends, scoring 11 shots to lead by 12 shots to four. David kept plugging away to reduce the deficit and level the scores at 15 shots all after 18 ends again John came back and the scores were level at 17 before David secured his first singles win scoring the four shots needed over the next two ends.

Current holder Alan Air, in his fourth final, figured again in the under-25 championship against Murray Grant who started the better and went into a 4-0 lead before Alan started his account and went into a 13 shots to five lead.

Murray fought back but in the end Alan retained his trophy winning by 21 shots to 13.

Annette Christie again teamed up with Liz Fraser to face new ladies’ pair Margaret Grant and Irene Wallace in the Ladies’ Two Bowl Pairs final. Annette and Liz started very well to lead by six shots to nil. Margaret and Irene kept plugging away, however it was not to be their day with Annette and Liz in good form and in the end they won the trophy comfortably in the end.

The Gents’ Pairs final featured George Sneddon and Keith Tait against Iain MacDonald and Andrew Sneddon. This game was always going to be a cracker and it was one of the closest games of the finals this year.

Iain and Andrew held the upper hand early on and went into a deserved 10 shots to five lead. George and Keith narrowed that gap and levelled the scores at 10 shots all after 10 ends. Iain and Andrew then took the initiative to lead by 13 shots to 12 before they were dealt a massive blow losing a six at one end to go behind by 18 shots to 13. They were never able to recover from this end and were beaten by 19 shots to 16.

On the other side of the green, an equally close game was going on in the Senior Pairs final between Roger Jones and Robin Cavana and Walter Jamieson and Bill Reaney. Roger and Robin started well to add seven shots without reply before Walter and Bill levelled the game at eight shots all after nine ends.

Roger and Robin scored in three of the next four ends to lead by 17 shots to 10. Walter and Bill made it a tense finish adding five shots to their score to trail by only two shots at 15-17 going into the last end, but in the end Roger and Robin were the victors by 18 shots to 15.

The final of the four bowls balloted pairs took place between Liz Fraser and Veronica Bell and Marion McClenaghan and Jill Dacombe.

The start of this game was very close with both pairs holding the lead early on until they were level at five shots all after seven ends.

From this point, although the ends were closed, Liz and Veronica took control to go on a scoring spree winning 10 of the remaining 11 ends to win the trophy by a comfortable margin.

In the Ladies’ Captain’s Trophy, Barbara Robertson met new member Norma Campbell.

The experience of Barbara was in evidence at the start as she raced into an 8-0 lead before Norma scored in the sixth end.

Barbara then added another eight shots before Norma started to reduce the lead, scoring seven shots in three ends.

Barbara then added a further three shots to Norma’s two to lead 19 shots to 13 before securing the two shots required to win the trophy by 21 shots to 13.